After devoting 29 years to the field of law enforcement, senior prosecutor Morley Shih (施茂林) has finally reached the top -- he's been appointed justice minister.
The naming of Shih to the post was announced by Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who will be sworn in as premier on Feb. 1. Shih will replace the current minister of justice, Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), and will take the minister's office along with his fellow Cabinet members early next month. Chen will return to his hometown of Ilan to campaign for the Ilan County commissioner election in December.
"The promotion provides new inspiration and challenges for me," Shih said. "In the future, my major job will be to keep people safe. In addition, we will keep working on a plan to abolish the death penalty, which is also the ministry's long-term policy."
Shih also said that a qualified prosecutor should know what he or she is doing and why.
"Being a prosecutor, you have to deal with a lot of sensitive cases from time to time, so you have to be very sensitive yourself," Shih said.
"When you make a mistake [in investigations], you hurt the image of all prosecutors -- not just yourself. You have to be extremely careful," he added.
Before he assumes the justice minister's office on Feb. 1, Shih is currently the vice justice minister, a position he assumed only last November. He is one of the most popular prosecutors in the nation because he enjoys "helping" his fellow prosecutors instead of "assigning" them.
At the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office where he worked for more than three years, Shih received praise from his fellow prosecutors. Shih was more like a teacher and father than a boss, former co-workers said.
"[Shih] often visited different offices and asked us whether we needed help ... he helped a lot when he had time. He even helped rookie prosecutors find a dorm room, which he really did not have to do," an prosecutor at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said on condition of anonymity.
Prosecutor Eric Chen (陳瑞仁), who is also the spokesman for the Prosecutors Reform Association (檢察官改革協會), said that Shih was selected as the "best candidate for the post as the state public prosecutor-general" in 2000 and last year by the association's members.
Currently, the justice ministry employs approximately 850 prosecutors, but two-thirds of them are members of the association.
"[Shih] was a prosecutor himself so he knows what a prosecutor needs," Eric Chen said. "His being appointed the new justice minister is really an encouragement to his fellow prosecutors."
Eric Chen also said that the most serious problem faced by prosecutors is a shortage in manpower.
"It has been a problem for years. Shih definitely knows how to solve the problem," Eric Chen said.
In addition to his relationship with prosecutors, Shih also established connections with the media, and has on occasion met personally with reporters in order to find out what the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office should do to improve.
"[Shih] is good at communications and negotiation," Eric Chen said. "It is a required personality trait for a justice minister."
Shih was born in Chiayi on Aug. 2, 1950. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in law from National Taiwan University, where he was classmates with now Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in 1972.
He passed the national exam for judges and prosecutors, passed the one-year recruiting program and became a prosecutor at the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office in 1976. In 1982, he switched gears and became a judge at the Taichung District Court. Two years later, he was promoted to presiding judge.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS