For years, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has trumpeted the idea of transitional justice, but it has been hesitant to take the message to the judicial arena for fear of being accused of "political interference.
In light of Tuesday's verdict in the corruption trial of former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Judicial independence means that the judiciary is free of interference from any administrative or legislative agencies. It does not mean that the judiciary is exempt from scrutiny or criticism. How can Taiwan progress if our less-than-professional judges cannot be criticized or scrutinized?
During his visit last month, former East German prime minister Lothar de Maiziere discussed how a reunified Germany has dealt with the issue of transitional justice.
After reunification, the Bonn government set up an independent organization to supervise the process. Aside from clearing the names and restoring the reputation of people who were once "blacklisted" by the East German communist regime, Bonn also publicized a list of former informers who then lost the right to serve in government. It required all political parties and their affiliated organizations to put their assets under the trust of an independent commission formed by the prime minister.
De Maiziere also said that 50 percent of the former communist regime's judges were considered unfit for their jobs and were relieved of their duties. If Germany can do this, why can't Taiwan?
It has been 20 years since martial law was lifted in Taiwan. However, a "martial-law" mindset still exists in many areas of the bureaucracy, including the judicial system.
Many in the judiciary attained their current positions as judges or prosecutors after passing countless national examinations. While their efforts and professionalism should be recognized and respected, it is still worth discussing how much of the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration's party-state mindset still holds sway over these judicial elite who had to memorize and parrot the former regime's party-state ideas in order to pass the tests needed to advance their careers.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the lifting of martial law, the government staged a series of commemorative events, in addition to think tanks holding forums on transitional justice and inviting experts from Hungary, Lithuania and Germany to share their experiences.
However, other than drafting a statute on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties (
It has failed not only to propose bills to clear the names of those once blacklisted by the former KMT regime, but has also failed to propose a plan to bring former informers and "students spies" to justice, let alone overhauling the judicial system.
Whether the DPP administration's lack of action in implementing transitional justice will cost it the presidency next year is not important. What is important is that its lack of action in this regard has hampered Taiwan's path to becoming a healthy democratic country.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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