President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has ignited a constitutional crisis with his involvement in a political vendetta against Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) that is being disguised as an influence peddling probe, and Ma owes Taiwanese an explanation, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
The controversy began when the Special Investigation Division (SID) launched a probe into alleged influence peddling by Wang and two other judicial officials, former minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office Head Prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌), in a lawsuit involving DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
The SID’s lack of due process in information-gathering and the administrative interference of the judicial and legislative branches throughout the investigation is highly alarming, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said after a DPP caucus meeting yesterday.
“It seems like we are back in the White Terror era, during which the government regularly wiretapped opposition politicians... This is worse than the Watergate scandal and is unacceptable,” Su said.
The chairman added that the SID had violated confidentiality regulations by reporting the case to Ma on Aug. 30, five days before it was publicly announced at a press conference on Friday, and demanded the president disclose whatever orders he gave during the meeting.
Ma has said that Wang abusing his position was “the most shameful day in the development of Taiwan’s democracy,” but what was really shameful was how the SID illegally gathered information and how the president used the division to politically persecute Wang, the DPP said.
With regards to the allegations that Ker asked Tseng, Chen and Wang to lobby a prosecutor to refrain from appealing his acquittal in a breach of trust case, Su said the claims were unfounded because Ker had been ruled innocent, so preventing an appeal was unnecessary.
In his first public appearance after the SID’s Friday announcement, Ker yesterday told a press conference he would tackle the claims head-on because they had been a political witch hunt from the beginning.
Ker denied that he asked Wang to lobby for him, but said he was sorry the legislative speaker was involved in the scandal.
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said that ironically, a group of Chinse Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in 2007 did exactly what Wang has been accused of doing, when they lobbied for Ma after he was charged with embezzling his special allowance as Taipei mayor.
Wu said that then-KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) visited then-prosecutor-general Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) with a group of KMT lawmakers on Aug. 16, 2007 — one day after Ma was found not guilty — and asked Chen to urge prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (侯寬仁) not to appeal the case.
“Judging by Ma’s standards, if that was not influence peddling, then what is?” Wu said.
The DPP has agreed to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach to the case, with caucus director-general Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) saying that the party’s next move would depend on Ma and Wang’s reactions, amid rumors that the latter may be stripped of his KMT membership and position after he returns from Malaysia today.
Ex-DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that a president making such accusations for political persecution was a “national tragedy.”
“The president has resorted to extreme measures, using illegally-obtained and unverified evidence to carry out political persecutions and divide the opposition so he can reap political gains,” she said. “A leader like this is no longer fit to govern.”
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS