Political figures — including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — yesterday criticized the government for postponing a decision on whether to release former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on medical parole, while activists protested during a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
Hopes were high that Chen, imprisoned for more than six years, would be able to go home on New Year’s Eve after an ad hoc medical assessment team on Tuesday recommended that he be granted medical parole.
However, the Ministry of Justice said on Wednesday that it would wait until Monday to decide. It said that because of traffic problems, relevant documents failed to be delivered on time.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
“The reason that the ministry gave [for the delay] is not reasonable,” Tsai told reporters after participating in a New Year’s Day flag-raising ceremony in Keelung.
“Although the efficiency of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government is something that has long been criticized, the reason that it gave is just non-proportional from a humanitarian point of view,” Tsai said.
“Based on humanitarianism, Ma’s government should accelerate its handling of the former president’s medical parole,” she added.
Ko, a former member of Chen’s medical team, held a similar view.
“The documents could have been sent fax or e-mail in just three seconds,” Ko said at a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
What the ministry said “does not sound like a good reason to me,” Ko said.
“My opinion about Chen’s [condition] has been the same from the very beginning: He should be allowed to go home to recuperate,” Ko said. “If the government wants to deal with it, it should deal with it well. It just does not sound like a valid reason.”
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) echoed Ko’s remarks.
While the ministry said that there are too many documents related to Chen’s medical parole, making the files too large to be e-mailed, Kuan said that government documents are not normally e-mailed, but are sent through a special electronic document delivery system.
“Since 2008, the ministry has delivered more than 1 million pages of documents electronically per year — which is three times the number of hard copies it delivers,” Kuan said. “The ministry’s Agency of Corrections was even honored for its management of electronic documents in 2013. Why did it choose the traditional freeway over the electronic freeway in this case?”
In another reaction to the ministry’s move, a group of activists led by the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) clashed with police during an attempt to enter the venue of the flag-raising ceremony in Taipei, demanding the former president’s immediate release.
Blocked by officers, Tsay and the other activists sat down and displayed a pro-independence flag.
They left the venue on their own after the ceremony.
Elsewhere, Chen Shui-bian’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), said he is disappointed with the ministry’s decision and did not know how to explain the situation to his grandmother.
Meanwhile, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was rushed to hospital shortly after 1am yesterday, three days into a hunger strike.
Lu stopped eating at about 4pm on Sunday in Taipei, vowing that she would not eat until Chen is released.
With the news that Chen might be allowed to go home on Wednesday, Lu traveled to Taichung Prison to greet him when he walked out of the prison.
Upon hearing the ministry’s announcement, Lu said she would attend the Taipei flag ceremony.
However, before Lu was able to attend the event, she was rushed to hospital.
Lu’s office said last night that she had ended the hunger strike on doctors’ advice.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary