Many of the 34 academics who signed an open letter to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) questioning his administration’s decision to investigate former senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials over 36,000 supposedly missing government documents are far from satisfied or reassured by the government’s response.
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) denied in a letter received by the academics this week that the investigation was politically motivated, even though it was announced on the eve of former premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) registration for the DPP’s primaries for next year’s presidential election.
Su is one of the 17 people being investigated.
“I am surprised at the sharp response of the Ma administration, which seems disproportionate to the letter itself,” June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami said. “I daresay that few of the signers find spokesperson Lo’s explanation convincing.”
Dreyer said the signatories had also heard “disquieting comments” from Lo and others alleging that the letter was originally written in Chinese (“it was originally written in English”) and that the signatories were ignorant of Taiwan.
“Really, some of us have lived there for decades; others visit regularly, read Taiwan newspapers and watch Taiwan television. Some were born in Taiwan; one carries a Taiwan/ROC passport. How then can we be considered ignorant? One must wonder how many documents were lost in the 2000 presidential transition,” she said.
Author Gordon Chang (章家敦), another of those who signed the open letter, said: “The case of the 36,000 missing documents is a whodunit without a crime, at least no crime involving the documents in question. But of course there is one crime in this drama. And what is that? That is the willingness of President Ma’s administration to use its investigatory powers to influence the upcoming elections. That crime is real, shameful and corrosive of democracy.”
“We sent the letter because someone had to speak out. The assertion that we are ‘foreigners’ who should mind our own business is regrettably the same one Beijing makes whenever someone points out the obvious about human rights in China. This is a perfect time to call a ‘time out’ on Ma’s march back to authoritarianism,” he said.
And Stephen Yates, former deputy assistant for national security affairs to former US vice president Dick Cheney, said: “News of the recent government action against several of the most senior officials in the previous administration struck many of us as unusual and questionable. It appeared to be part of a troubling pattern of expansive, lengthy and repeated investigations, indictments and trials of former administration officials. Much of which amounts to a criminalization of politics and an erosion of justice.”
“Senior elected and appointed officials in any government are not responsible for document management. And the fact that two-and-a-half years passed before this issue was referred to the Control Yuan for investigation also is inconsistent with any notion of real national security or law enforcement concern,” Yates said.
John Tkacik, a former senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said: “Supposedly these documents are circulating outside the Presidential Office. Why weren’t there any examples given? Surely, the Presidential Office could have pointed to some of the unclassified documents that are missing and demonstrate how their circulation is injuring the public interest. That in itself is enough to make anyone suspect that the accusations are politically motivated. At this point, the 36,000 documents affair looks like deminimis non curat lex — trifles not to be handled under the law.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by