Prosecutors in Hualien yesterday complained that their superiors were paying too much attention to cracking down on bribery related to next month's Hualien County commissioner by-election.
"We Hualien prosecutors already know how to do our jobs. We do not need our superiors to show us how to accomplish our mission," said Yang Ta-chih (楊大智), a chief prosecutor at the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office.
Yang made the remark during a meeting to discuss the crackdown on election-related bribery which was chaired by Minster of the Interior Yu Chen-hsien (
"We do believe that local prosecutors know what they are doing and will successfully prevent bribery during the election," Chen said. "Honestly, today's meeting is more like a promotional event. We hope to warn potential vote-buyers not to do so by asking high-ranking law enforcement officials to meet here to show our concern and our determination to tackle vote-buying.
"Our experience and statistics showed us that bribery was not news in Hualien during past elections so we have to do this. It is like a constant reminder to vote-buyers," he said.
As part of the crackdown, Yu has also transferred 480 police officers from other counties to establish an anti-vote-buying task force.
Yang, however, said that local prosecutors and police officers have already reached a tacit agreement on how to investigate crimes.
The arrival of high-ranking law-enforcement officials and the transfer of more police officers also seemed to humiliate local prosecutors and police officers.
"It seems to me that we do not know how to do our jobs so our superiors need to ask somebody else to show us," Yang said.
Huang Yi-chun (
"They do not even know their way around downtown Hualien. How can they carry out their mission?" she said. "To transfer so many officers from other locations is a waste of manpower."
Yesterday's meeting was also attended by National Police Administration Commissioner Chang Si-liang (
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS