Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has had a stroke and has a serious mental disorder, a group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers and medical experts said yesterday, renewing calls for Chen to be released from prison for medical treatment and the immediate inclusion of a psychiatrist on Chen’s medical team.
“Judging from Chen’s declining condition and the obvious fact that the Taipei Prison had been dealing with his health carelessly, we think that a release for medical treatment is a necessity,” DPP Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) told a press conference.
Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption, was sent to Taoyuan General Hospital on Wednesday night after complaining of pain when urinating, and was admitted for an extended examination.
Photo: Li Jung-ping, Taipei Times
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test yesterday found that Chen has a 4mm by 4mm trace of a cerebral vascular accident in his right frontal lobe, Hsu said.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who visited the former president in the hospital on Thursday, said the latter was also having speech problems, which could originate from psychogenic reasons, and appeared to be suffering from persecutory delusion, as Chen Shui-bian told physicians that he was bitten by hundreds of ants in his cell." The lawmaker also said the former president said that “some bad guys did that to hurt me.”
Chen Chi-mai called for the inclusion of a psychiatrist on Chen Shui-bian’s medical team to assess the former president’s mental health.
According to physician Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森) and Taipei Veterans General Hospital physician Kuo Cheng-deng (郭正典) — both Chen Shui-bian’s supporters who have met and examined the former president — Chen Shui-bian had experienced various complications, including breathing difficulties, ulcers and coronary problems, among others, during the past four years, but never received the appropriate care in prison.
While Chen Shui-bian had been escorted out of prison for medical examination at least six times, Kuo said the medical teams have always rushed the examination process, starting at 6am each time, so that the former president would not have to spend the night in the hospital.
The practice made it difficult for doctors to gain a clear and complete picture of Chen Shui-bian’s health, Kuo said, but President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration insisted that guarded hospital visits were enough.
Pan-green politicians and the former president’s supporters have said that the Ministry of Justice and the prison’s passive attitute toward treating Chen Shui-bian’s condition is a politically motivated practice that reflects Ma’s attitude toward his predecessor.
“Since Chen Shui-bian’s release for medical treatment is a medical issue, according to President Ma, I wonder why the Taipei Prison, the Ministry of Justice and Ma had been the ones calling the shots, instead of the prison’s medical team,” Kuo said.
“As a physician, I would say that only a physician, not a politician, could question and overrule another physician’s diagnosis,” he said.
“The ministry has breached basic human rights values by continuing to ignore Chen’s deteriorating health, which appears to be politically motivated and reflects Ma’s hatred,” DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
Noting Aung Sang Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest by an authoritarian regime in Myanmar and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) placed his political enemies Chang Hsueh-liang (張學良) and Sun Li-jen (孫立人) under house arrest, DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said: “Ma is even worse than Chiang Kai-shek in the persecution and humiliation he imposed upon his political enemies.”
Meanwhile, the justice ministry said the MRI scan did not find signs of a stroke or new tumors.
The images only found a 4mm wound caused by brain ischemia — a restriction in the blood supply to vessels — the ministry cited the hospital as saying, adding that Chen Shui-bian had been briefed by the hospital on the result.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
This story has been updated since first published.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS