Amid last month’s heat wave, Taiwan saw a series of judicial adjudications for corruption allegations against heavyweight politicians from the three largest parties. These have highlighted the new government’s efforts to fight corruption and revealed much about the different stances of the parties toward disciplining their members for misconduct.
On July 11, former deputy premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was detained as part of an investigation for allegedly accepting bribes in a land rezoning project during his time as Taoyuan mayor from 2014 to 2022.
Prosecutors in Hsinchu on July 17 indicted Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly receiving bribes and the misuse of public authority related to a real-estate project.
On Friday last week, Hsinchu City Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for corruption and was suspended from office. She was indicted for taking more than NT$460,030 of public funds and falsifying documents during her term as a legislator from 2020 to 2022.
On the same day, KMT Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) was convicted of corruption for embezzling money and forgery related to transactions involving his family mansion. The Taichung District Court gave him a combined sentence of more than eight years.
As this was the first ruling, he has yet to lose his office. The Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) only requires a lawmaker to be dismissed after the third ruling.
These indictments and rulings have demonstrated the judicial and prosecutor organs’ proactiveness in fighting corruption, regardless of political party. They also demonstrate judicial independence in line with the expectations of Taiwanese.
A recent survey showed a rise in public trust and satisfaction with President William Lai (賴清德). However, the public has been less impressed with the reactions of the opposition parties to the corruption cases.
Despite Cheng saying he is innocent, the DPP suspended his party membership for three years, and said he would be expelled if found guilty.
For the KMT, despite its disciplinary regulations saying members would be suspended if they are detained for a probe, and expelled if they are convicted even in a first trial, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and the party disciplinary committee said that no punishment would be meted out until the convictions of Yang and Yen were affirmed in a third trial.
The KMT has shown a looser tolerance of alleged corruption, and is applying different standards from previous disciplinary actions. Former Keelung mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利) was expelled in 2006 after a first-trial sentence and former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) was expelled following his detention for a corruption investigation in 2012. Two KMT legislators were also suspended soon after being detained for investigation in 2020.
As for TPP, ignoring that Kao misused public funds and forged documents, TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said she embezzled “only NT$116,514” and complained about alleged biases in the justice system and political interference. The party even said that Kao should not have been suspended from her mayoral duties, challenging the Local Government Act (地方制度法) that has lawfully suspended local administrators sentenced for corruption for years.
While the opposition-dominated legislature is seeking the controversial expansion of powers for judicial investigations and convictions, the reluctance of the KMT and TPP to discipline members and their attempts to shield their misconduct by bringing judicial judgements into disrepute is a worrying sign for the country’s judicial system, as well as a setback for democracy.
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