Taiwan is a rotten country.
The finding of the 2013 Global
Corruption Barometer (GCB, Transparency
international) shows Taiwan is the 18th
worst corruption country,
<Apple
Daily> (7.11.2013):
survey found 75.07% Taiwanese people
think corruption in Taiwan is actually
worse than GCB's report.
According to
2013 survey (Dec. 10, 2013)
conducted by
The
Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD )&
Shih Hsin University
(SHU), Taiwanese respondents
gave
only 1.8 points (a "F" score on rate
0.0~5.0 points) to the
nation
on "non-corruption in government" item.
(Taiwan
Judicial system)
Corruption
in Taiwanese officials field is even
worse ( more serious
) than that in China's officials circle
in last year, and
about same score as China this year,
according to a survey by PERC , which
was reported
by most Taiwan's news
media. Taiwan's CPI
(Corruption Perception Index, by Germany
based Transparency Int'l) rankings in
recent 3 years are worse than those in
1998-2000 by about 8-9 positions in
average.
Corruption is not only
throughout Taiwan's military, police, education systems,
Parliament/legislation, Public
officials/civil servants, political
parties,
religious circles, media, also lies in the judiciary & high court judges.
It seems Taiwan has not
decided to rooting out or even really fighting against corruption
( already proved to be one
of the hardest tasks to achieve).
< The Economist >of UK
(2010) stated 3
high-court judges and a prosecutor had
been detained
amid allegations that they took
bribes to fix the outcome of a
high-profile case, has brought
Taiwanese
public outrage to boiling point.
However, Taiwan has not repented its corruption for a long time,
Legislators ( similar to senators or
congressmen in the US ) only
passed a reform bill with handicapped
function
― only under "
certain condition", judicial investigation
into government employee's foggy/unknown
property is allowed ―
so that
legislators (or other people in power) can continue
taking a bribe.
The reasons Taiwan had
not really held a large anti-corruption
campaign also include :
(1)
Taiwan government is afraid of loss in
political elections.
(2)
The arrested suspects may disclose
many more (other) "partners" implicated in the
case, so that Taiwan government can't
handle it well.
etc.
Taiwan's latest announcement by
president
― the
formation of a
new commission to
battle corruption, is
criticized/questioned by all major
newspapers in Taiwan.
Media suggested Taiwan must takes
lessons from successful experiences of
Singapore's <Corrupt Practices
Investigation Bureau> and Hong
Kong's <Independent Commission
Against Corruption>.
(1) New commission
must has the power to judicially investigate
into government
official's origin of the surplus money,
as long as their income is more than
normally they can earn .
(2) New commission
should be at high position, i.e.,
is affiliated to Taiwan's president, so
as to not be hobbled by
foxy people in power or by a debt of gratitude.
(3) New commission
functions independently.
(4) New commission's
members have no any relation or
connection with
bureaucratic systems and dirty money network so as to implement the plan
neutrally.
(5) Legislative Yuan
(the national legislature) must backs budgets for New commission,
so that Legislators and high ranking
officials in power won't be able to threaten them.
(6) Needs a watching
mechanism to avoid New Commission
working on wrong purpose, i.e.,
selecting specific or minor or wrong
targets and turning a blind eye to
others.
But Taiwan's new commission
has
none of above .
So, Apple Daily News, most popular news
in Taiwan, concluded at July 21 that
New Commission is useless, forget
about it !
Taiwan's
corruption,
comments by media
★ <The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
for 2013>, released at Feb. 27, 2014
(1) 573 Taiwanese officials — including
39 “high-ranking” officials — were indicted on corruption charges.
Among those indicted include former Executive Yuan
Secretary-General Lin Yi-shih (林益世).
(2) Judiciary : the judicial system
suffered from corruption, and that the impartiality of judges and prosecutors
involved in high-profile and politically sensitive cases had been questioned.
★
<Heritage Foundation> & <WallStreet
Journal>, Jan. 15, 2014
Index of
Economic Freedom, 2014
1. Taiwan's declined in the following index :
Freedom From Corruption (
59.7 declined); Business Freedom (93.9);
Monetary
Freedom(81.7);Labor Freedom(53.1);Government
Spending(84.7);Fiscal
Freedom(80.3)
2. Taiwan has significant improvements in
financial freedom and investment freedom outweighing small declines
in six of
the 10 economic freedoms including freedom from corruption...
★
PERC’s 2014 Report on
Corruption in Asia,
Asian Intelligence Reports Index Mar. 19,
2014 by
POLITICAL & ECONOMIC RISK CONSULTANCY LTD (HK based)
1. Taiwan's corruption index
declined
Asia's ranking status:
1 Singapore (score 1.6), 2
Japan(2.08) , 3 Australia(2.55) , 4 Hong
Kong(2.95),
5 USA(3.50) , 6 Macau(3.65) , 7
Malaysia(5.25), 8 TW(5.31),
9 S. Korea (7.05), 10 Chn(7.10)
2. High-position officials including KMT
and DPP both in serious
corruption status. Taiwan's
judiciary system failed to strike
systematic corruption, e.g., Tai-chung
High Court judge Hu (胡景彬)
taking bribery.
★
<Transparency
International>, Germany, July
9, 2013
The finding of the 2013 Global
Corruption Barometer (GCB), ( the
Gallup Poll to interview 114,000 people
in 107 countries all over the world): 36%
of people (surveyed in TW) who had
used any of eight government services in
the past year had
paid a bribe (the number is
higher than global average).
<NOWnews> , (7.10.2013)–
Taiwan is
the 18th worst corruption country in 95
countries surveyed. (重度貪污國家第18名)
<Apple
Daily> (7.11.2013): Apple daily's survey
found 75.07% Taiwanese people think
corruption in Taiwan is actually worse
than GCB's report.
(1)
◆
Percentage(%) of respondents who
felt these institutions were corrupt/extremely corrupt in this
country/territory
75% of respondents in Taiwan who felt that
parliament/legislature( the
Legislative Yuan)
were corrupt/extremely corrupt ;
74% political parties; 62% media;
57% judiciary;
56% police; 56% military; 56%
public officials and servants;
47% medical and health services; 45% educational systems;
44% business; 33% religious bodies; 31%
NGOs( non-governmental organizations)
(2)
◆To
what extent do you think corruption is a
problem in the public sector in this
country/territory?
7%: not really a problem;
27%: a slight problem;
35%: it's a problem; 31%: serious
problem
(3)
◆
Have you or anyone in your
household paid a bribe to one of these 8 services in the last 12 months?
35% judiciary; 21% medical and health services;
16% educational systems; 16% police;
15% tax revenue; 15% registry & permit
services; 17% utility; 11%
land service;
(4)
◆over
the past 2 years how has the level of corruption in the
country/territory changed?23%
decrease a lot; 48% decrease a little;
17% stayed the same; 9% increase a little;
3% increase a lot
(5)
◆How
effect your government actions are in the fight against corruption?
very ineffective: 14%; ineffective: 32%, etc
(6)
◆
Institutions perceived by
respondents to be among the most affected by corruption?political
party: Taiwan is one among 51 countries of 107 perceived political party
to be among the institutions most affected by corruption.
parliament & legislature: Taiwan is one among 7 countries of 107
perceived parliament & legislature to be among the institutions most
affected by corruption.
(7)
◆To
what extent do you agree that ordinary people can make a difference in
the fight against corruption?
51% agree; 28% disagree; 8% strong disagree; 13%
strong agree
ps: 2013 Corruption Perception index TW
rank 36 score 61 same as that in 2012
(Singapore 5, HK 15, Japan 18)
★ USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices,
April 19, 2013
One of the
principal human rights problems reported
in Taiwan 2012 were judicial corruption. “Although the authorities made efforts to eliminate
corruption and diminish
political influence in the
judiciary, some residual problems remained,” the report
said.
The report also said that political commentators and academics
had publicly questioned the impartiality of judges and
prosecutors involved in high-profile and politically
sensitive cases.
(CNA) Taiwan was ranked 37th among 176
nations and regions in an annual global
index on the perception of corruption in
the public sector,
dropping five spots from last year,
In 2011, Taiwan was ranked 32nd among
183 nations and territories. China
remained in 80th place with a score of
39 - which means Failure.
(Reuters) In Transparency
International's
2012 Corruption Perceptions Index,
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tied
for first place out of 176 countries -
meaning they were perceived to have the
lowest levels of state sector
corruption. Sweden was fourth with
Singapore ranked as 5th.
★ USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices,
May 24, 2012
it
highlighted the problem of corruption in
Taiwan, saying more than 400 officials were
indicted on corruption charges in the past
year, including 54 high-ranking officials.
In addition, it said the judicial system
in Taiwan “suffered from some corruption.”
The impartiality of judges and
prosecutors involved in high-profile and
politically sensitive cases was being
questioned by some political commentators
and academics, the report said.
★
Amnesty International, London, UK,
annual report The State of the
World's Human Rights 2012, May 24, 2012
The authorities did little to protect
the housing rights of farmers across the
island, at times colluding in their
eviction. Migrant workers were unable to
freely change employer. Domestic migrant
workers and care-givers were often
forced to work without adequate rest.
The media exposed abuse and exploitation
of migrant workers by government
officials and celebrities.
◎ Taiwan ranked (19th) in the lower half of TI's
2011 “Bribe Payers" index, finishing 19th among the 28 countries
surveyed
◎ Taiwan fell from 14th place in the index released
in 2008, when 22 countries were scrutinized.
◎ The Berlin-based organization asked 3,016
business executives in 30 selected countries how often companies in the
countries polled engaged in bribery.
★
< Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (PERC) >Mar. 21,
According to PERC,
Taiwan's
corruption grade (5.45) is behind Asia&Pacific
No.1 Singapore (0.67)、No. 2
Australia(1.28)、No. 3 Japan(1.90)、No. 4 USA(2.59) 、Hong
Kong(2.64)、Macau(2.85), Taiwan (5.45) ranked
No. 7(same as 2011), then No.8 is Malaysia(5.59)、No.9 Thailand(6.57)、 No.10
Lau柬埔寨(6.83)、No.11 S. Korea(6.90) 、No. 12 China(7.00). The grade
10 is worst, 0 is best.
★
<Apple Daily News>, Taiwan, Dec. 5, 2012
Acording to "2012 Taiwanese Human Rights index
survey" (conducted by 中華人權協會), 17.9% Taiwanese think Taiwan's overall human
rights in progress, 36% think it is in retreat,
25.8%
Taiwanese think Taiwan's political human rights
in retreat, 17.1% think it is in progress,
38.4%
Taiwanese think Taiwan's
judiciary
human rights in retreat, 13.1% think it is in
progress.
★ <Taiwan News>,
Dec.
5, 2012
according to
"2012 Taiwan Human Rights Indicator Survey",
about 53.5 percent of the
respondents gave the protection of judicial human rights a
negative rating, compared with 21.4 percent who rated it
positively.
★
<Taipei Times>, Taiwan, Dec.
8, 2012
Public feels human
rights deteriorating
DISSATISFACTION:
Official corruption, the government’s inability
to fill people’s needs and media independence were top public concerns,
according to a survey of public opinion by the government-affiliated Taiwan
Foundation for Democracy (conducted by Shih Hsin University),...
Corruption was the target of the greatest public dissatisfaction, scoring
1.9 points. It was followed by the government’s ability to respond to
people’s needs, which garnered 2 points, and external
interference in judicial rulings, at 2.1 points.
Taiwan ranked 32 on the corruption perception index ranking released by
Transparency International, but still lagged behind some of its more
economically advanced neighbors, such as Japan and Singapore.
Taiwan received a grade of 6.1 [on a scale of one to 10] on the
corruption perception index ( Asia's ranks : New Zealand 9.5, Singapore 9.2
, Hong Kong 8.2, Japan 8.0).
To improve Taiwan's rank, the government must launch a long-term
education campaign to raise citizen awareness of the values of clean
politics and governance, besides, the government and the legislature must be
more cautious in handling issues related to government officials' special
allowance funds, etc.
ps: Editorial <Apple daily news> : ... but, dirt still
hide in local engineering cases ... very hard to catch...
★ USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices,
April 8, 2011
There
were still problems with corruption (
police corruption's limited but still a
problem )
★ Amnesty International, London, UK,
annual report The State of the
World's Human Rights 2011, May 13, 2011
Taiwan was criticized over issues to
do with the
death
penalty, freedom of expression,
justice ( also voiced concerns over
the slow progress to enact a
judges' act to
address corruption scandals involving
high court judges and over the
working conditions of migrant workers.) and migrants' rights.
★ <The
Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street
Journal>, USA,
Jan. 12, 2011
Taiwan's "Freedom from
Corruption"
scores 56 ( which is
worst
since 2007), Taiwan's economic
freedom score is 70.8, ranked 7th
in the Asia–Pacific region.
score 5.9
score 5.5
2001 2002 2003
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
2009 2010
Taiwan's corruption index by year,
Transparency International, Germany
pic. above: Taiwan's human rights - corruption records are better in 2001, 2005, 2006
than records recently.
Taiwan's
corruption sorting list: worst
― Police: 3.9,
Parliament/legislation: 3.8,
Public officials/civil servants :3.8,
Political parties : 3.5, military:
3.4, judiciary3.3 , Media ,
Education systems : 3.2
ps: Taiwan's news media in
Dec. 10, 2010
<Liberty Times>
seems to report all fields, but skip Public officials/civil
servants,
military
and
education systems；
<United Daily
News> only reported the worst field
― police；
<China times> reported worst 4
fields.
World Corruption Index:
Singapore No.1, Australia No.8 (score
8.7), HK No.13 (8.4), Japan No. 17
(7.8), Qatar No.19 (7.7), US No.22
(7.1), Taiwan No.33 (5.8)
Taiwanese people
think in the past 3 years Taiwan's
corruption: stayed the same 35%,
increased 42%, decreased 23%
ps: <the Liberty Times>:
Increased & Stayed the same about 77%
...... Taiwan's
corruption is
still serious ...
★
<The Economist> UK,
July 22, 2010
The article under the theme of （Corruption
in Taiwan--Confirming the worst
suspicions） reported :
Three
high-court judges and a
prosecutor had been detained
amid allegations that they took
bribes to fix the outcome of a
high-profile case, has brought
public outrage to boiling point.
The case is Taiwan’s
biggest
judicial-corruption scandal in
over a decade.
“The
significance of this case is
that it makes all the rumours a
reality,”
The country's president, announced the
formation of a
new commission to
battle corruption and
vote-buying.
Such talk is ...
drawing comparisons to
Singapore’s Corrupt Practices
Investigation Bureau and Hong
Kong’s Independent Commission
Against Corruption. But, unlike
those bodies, the Taiwanese
commission will
not report
directly to the president, but
only to the justice ministry,
where tangled
bureaucracy and
civil servants who are
deferential to their political
bosses could limit action.
In any case, complains the
opposition Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP), and
various experts, such a
commission will be toothless as
long as it is nearly impossible
to sack bad judges and
prosecutors. An act calling for
such a mechanism has long been
stalled in parliament.
★
<USA
Country Reports on Human Rights
practices>
March 11, 2010 www.state.gov
One out of 4 major Taiwan's human rights problems :
Taiwan's corruption by officials
★
<The Economist> UK, Jan 22nd
2009"Political
corruption in Taiwan"
Taiwan expert at Monash University in Australia, points
out that recent corruption
investigations have mainly been aimed at
opposition politicians; prosecutors seem
far less interested in investigating KMT
(Taiwan's 'Chinese Nationalist Party' )
figures.
★
< Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (PERC) >
2009 : The corruption of Taiwan is more serious than that of China.
March 2010 :
Taiwan's corruption
grade (6.28) is behind Asia&Pacific No.1 Singapore(1.42)、No.2
Australia(2.28)、
No.3 Hong Kong (2.67)、No.4 USA(3.42)、No.5 Japan(3.49)、No.6
Macau or Macao (4.96)、No.7 South Korea(5.98) , China's grade 6.52
Inside Taiwan, national political leader's
grade 8.07, metro & local political
leader 7.53, central officials 5.4, local officials
4.49 (translation from Chinese
newspaper)
March 22, 2011 :
Taiwan's corruption index :
among Asian & Pacific countries,
Taiwan is behind Singapore (No.1),
HK, Australia, Japan, USA, Macau
(Macao)
POLITICAL & ECONOMIC RISK CONSULTANCY LTD (HK based), March 22, 2011
(1) Founding that : most serious corruption lies in Taiwan's top-position
leaders and government's metro./city reconstruction units.
(2) Taiwan's
reform against corruption remains no good.
reported by Taiwan's Apple Daily, Mar. 23, 2011
★
<New York Times> USA
July 27, 2009
Beijing officials have viewed Taiwan as a renegade
province ever since the Nationalists retreated to
the island upon losing China's civil war to the
Communists in 1949. The reunification of mainland
China and Taiwan has long been the mainland's top
goal in relations with the United States, Taiwan's
closest ally. ......
But his party (KMT) has a history of corruption and thuggery so ingrained that when Mr. Ma tried to
investigate illegal deals while justice minister in
the mid-1990s, he quickly lost his job and
temporarily had to leave politics......
★
<Transparency
Org. Taiwan > Dec 9, '05
Taiwan Corruption Index :
Parliament 78%, political parties 69%, Custom 61%, Military 48%, Police
45%, Legislative 43%, Power & Water 41%, Taxes 35%,
Medical 32%,
Education 25%, Media 19%, Religion 16%, etc (Taiwan corruption is lousy,
Gallup 2006, Transparency Org. 2007 )
No.1 on Google, test on Dec. 15, 2013, Dec. 4, 2012, Jan. 11, 2012, Feb. 14, 2011, Sept. 14 &
Nov. 22, '10
No.1 in google, test on Sept. 14, 2010, East time
★
<Apple
Daily News>, Taiwan
◎ Editorial ："Hope 期待廉政署公正嚴厲" , July 19, 2011
... Anti-corruption
Commission's ranking is comparatively too low,
... most likely will become
a tool for political struggles, ... particularly during important political
election campaign period ... without a reform/'revolution', we can not
root out thousands years' Chinese corruption culture ...... first of all the new
commission will investigate the police and
judiciary......
◎
Comparison with Hong Kong's Independent
Commission Against Corruption.
July 30, 2010（趙少康）
The Last British leader of Hong Kong's
<Independent Commission Against Corruption> (before 1997) stated HK's
experience:
(1) To establish public confidence ―
first of all, take a hard-line to strike biggest
target, i.e., select the leader of police in HK (UK).
(2) 24 hrs hot-lines, accept anonymous denouncements as well.
(3) To enlighten people with anti-bribery education.
◎ " new commission looks
pretty, but useless"
July 21, 2010
According to successful experiences of HK as well as Singapore, New
Commission will functions well under 4 conditions as below :
(1) New commission is affiliated
to Taiwan's president, ....
(2) New commission
employs new-blood members ...
(3) High conviction rate ...
(4) New commission
can take the initiative in judicially
investigation officials' origin
of the surplus money, as long as their
property are more than normal.
The New Commission will leads to chaos or will be useless, so, just
forget about it, we don't believe this solution.
◎ President doesn't quite know
Taiwan's corruption July 17, 2010
The reasons Taiwan had not really held a
large anti-corruption campaign include :
(1)
political factor: anti-corruption
may affects political elections, or just
set some examples, all depends ...
(2)
benefit factor: The arrestee may leaks out many other
officials implicated in the case,
particularly in the case a group of
officials involved are accomplices
(joint offenders).
◎ Taiwan's untruly reform
July 22, 2010
Anti-corruption
campaign is working only on the condition of :
1. New commission is affiliated to
Taiwan's president, must be in high place.
2. independently.
3 members are outsiders of old
bureaucratic system.
4. can check the origin of the surplus income.
New commission has none of the above.
◎ One more fat
rat July 21, 2010
a cute picture : Taiwan's police rides bike to collect bribery money , The
Investigation Bureau drives car to collect money, high-court judges
collect money by earth-movers, ... as for the New Commission, will drive a
container truck to collect money ...
Moreover, maybe no one dares to sneer New Commission's weirdo things in the coming
future ...
★
<
the China times>
◎ Aug. 26, 2010
We sincerely hope Taiwan's politicians
no longer take legislation as tools or even
sacrifice/compromise legislation for political
struggle/conflict.
◎ Taiwan's fighting
against corruption ... far behind Taiwanese people's expectation.
August 11, 2010
◎ Key-point is resolution, not one
more commission July 30, 2010
In the past 20 years,
Legislative Yuan
( the national legislature )
etc worried New Commission will be
a big trouble for them, scholars/experts questioned New
Commission is just a duplicated unit, which will be
used for political struggle/conflict or not working
at all.
... officials give covers to officials each other ...... money is the
greatest value of them ...
◎ We give you a <New
commission>, you give us judicialreform
July 30, 2010
【劉孔中】
Setting up a new Commission is just the 1st step, it must follows with a judicial
reform, this is almost a consensus nationwide.
While DPP government days, KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party of Taiwan) was against setting up a <new commission>, now
it's KMT time, KMT changes their mind and plans to set up <new commission>
.......
◎ new Commission,
a "tool", or just a false reform
July 21, 2010
President has been announcing several times Taiwan urgently needs a reform
bill
―
investigation into officials' foggy income/property, but Legislative Yuan has not
passed it till now.
The key to succeed the
anti-corruption campaign is (1) passing a reform bill (2) making close
investigations (3) a good watchdog mechanism
Taiwan government needs downsizing, but now Taiwan is planning to create a
new commission ... it's contradictory ....
◎ a cleanHK (UK), but not
any more July 25, 2010
Hong Kong’s Independent Commission
Against Corruption is no longer working excellent since HK's hand over to
communist China.
★
<
The United Daily News>, Taiwan
◎ the key-point is short of
public confidenceJuly
21, 2010
The Investigation Bureau has been under political control/influence for a
long time.
The leader of Investigation Bureau or prosecutors is not unbiased
( not admirable ) ...
how are Taiwanese confident on or give credence to them ?
◎ Eager for a clean
government July 20,
2010
Singapore people respect their government, but Taiwanese have been criticizing
Taiwan's government for a long time.
◎ Aug 1 , 2010
We may need jury system (of the US., UK, France).
◎ July 9 , 2009
Officials taking money is not guilty, what is
Legislative/judicial
system trying to say ??
★
< the Liberty Times>, Taiwan
Aug. 26, 2010
◎ Legislative/judicial
reform
must start from the government leaders, first
of all, move political
dirty hands away from legislative circles ....
July, 2010
◎ Many confessions or pleading
guilty are done by tricks or other black-heart measures ... we hope no more victims in the
future.
◎
If Taiwan
government really wants a clean country this time, they should
investigate into CTV etc cases (Chinese
namely,中廣、中影、中視等「三中」案)
.
◎
Legislative Yuan
(the national legislature)
must respects and
supports budgets for the New Commission.
★
<
Taiwan News> July 30, 2010
( Johnson Chen )
It's a cheap-copy of
Hong Kong's <Independent Commission
Against Corruption>.
Three similar-function "commissions" will
struggle, confrontation and conflict each other.
★
Taiwan's Corruption lies in
major
fields :
Parliament 78%, political parties 69%, Custom 61%, Military 48%, Police
45%, Legislative 43%, Power & Water 41%, Taxes 35%, Medical 32%,
Education 25%, Media 19%, Religion 16%, etc (Corruption index by Transparency Org. Taiwan
couple years ago)
Google No.1 ranking "Taiwan corruption" (Chinese
language) , Feb. 14, 2011, and Aug. 8, 2010
World Media viewpointson
Former President of Taiwan Goes on Trial for Corruption
★
<Washington
Post>, <Newsweek> USA
Democracy and Dirty Money in Taiwan
August
18, 2008
You have to love what's happening in Taiwan. Yeah,
..... the former President of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, has just been banned from leaving the
island and the Swiss are investigating a bank
account that contains $20 million.
Chen, the first opposition candidate to become
president of Taiwan, came into office promising to
clean up what is known on that island as the culture
of "hei qian" or dirty money. Hmmm.
...... The Taiwan story is remarkable, however, not just
because it involves the fall of failed president but
because it is happening at all.
It underscores the
fact that Taiwan's democracy, while still plagued by
corruption, is trying to keep it house clean. As
such it's good news for Taiwan and, who knows,
perhaps good news for the many Chinese on mainland
China who look to Taiwan and its political system
with some hope and maybe a little admiration. Could
this happen in China, too? (John Pomfret
)
★
<New York Times> USA
Former President of Taiwan Is Detained in
a Corruption Inquiry November 11, 2008
The former president paused briefly before television
cameras, raised his arms and defiantly shouted, “Long
live Taiwan!” and “Political persecution!”
Mr. Chen, one of Taiwan’s most controversial
political figures, ...
Mr. Chen has suggested that prosecutors are focusing
on him to win favor from Beijing..... (By
DAVID BARBOZA)
★
<New York Times> USA
Taiwan’s Former President Goes on Trial for Corruption
March 26, 2009
But Mr. Chen .... has maintained the charges are a plot
by Taiwan’s current president,
Ma Ying-jeou, to win favor with China’s government.
...“In order to win favors and protection from Beijing,
the KMT”......
Although the evidence against Mr. Chen is strong,
some analysts say the government’s handling of the case
has been less than deft. Prosecutors were criticized
after they participated in
a skit before Justice Ministry officials that
clearly mocked Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen has won sympathy by
claiming that his detention without bail — and, at
first, without any contact with his family — has been
unjustly harsh.
“The prosecutors have been going a bit wild, and how
this trial is conducted will be critical,”...... “This is an important
landmark in Taiwan’s whole process of democratization.”
(
By
MICHAEL WINES )
★
< The Times> UK
★
<New York Times> USA Sept.
11, 2009
...... Mr. Chen blasted the proceedings as a "tool
for political suppression and persecution" by his
successor......
Mr. Chen was the first politician outside the
Kuomintang to become president of Taiwan, after he
helped lead a pro-democracy movement that opposed
martial law and other strict measures put in place
by the Kuomintang. Martial law was not lifted until
1987, and the island's first multi-party elections
held in 1996. Mr. Chen had strongly campaigned
against the corruption that many Taiwanese saw as
widespread within the Kuomintang, which retreated to
Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war to the
Communists in 1949.
(Michael Wines)
★
<TIME> USA, 2009
Chen (former president of ROC Taiwan) insists his case is one of political
persecutions by the new Kuomintang administration, which has been forging closer
ties with China since coming into power ......
In some ways, Chen's trial is a positive sign that the justice system
is alive ...
★
<BBC> UK
Taiwan court rejects
Chen Shui-bian corruption appeal
11
June 2010
... He denies the charges and has said he is
being punished by the pro-Beijing government for
his independence views ...
His supporters say the current Taiwanese
government - which favours closer relations with
China - is persecuting the former president for
upsetting Beijing by pushing for formal
independence while he was in office.
... The government has insisted Chen's case is
being dealt with according to the law, says our
correspondent.
Taiwan has been ruled separately from China
since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949,
...... But Beijing sees the island as a breakaway
province which should be reunified with the
mainland, by force if necessary.
★
<New York Times> USA
Corruption Scandal at Top Tests Taiwan's Democracy
November
25, 2006
At times, Taiwanese politics is a blend of opera and
blood sport, and this is one of those times. Scandal and
outrage, lying and humiliation -- all of it messy and
delivered in a loud, public fashion -- are consuming
political life here, as a virtual death watch has
settled over the second term of President Chen Shui-bian.
''In 10 years, when we look back, this could be a
turning point for Taiwan's democracy to become mature,''
...... ''Right now, it is a disgrace, and
it is quite humiliating. But once we get past this, I
think Taiwan's politics will get a lot cleaner.''
Politically, Taiwan's symbolic power has always been
as a democratic counterpoint to China. But democracy in
Taiwan remains a work in progress that has been
repeatedly challenged during Mr. Chen's tenure. The
pivotal recent event occurred Nov. 3 when a prosecutor
in Taipei, the capital, indicted the first lady and also
announced that Mr. Chen, immune from prosecution as
president, could face charges after he left office. For
a judicial branch regarded as a weak constitutional
pillar, it was a historic moment.
''This is very hard evidence that at last we have a
fair and independent-minded judicial branch,'' ...... ''The
principle of separation of power has taken root in
Taiwan.''
★
<The China
Post> Taiwan
Problem with corruption is scarring Taiwan's
democracy August 9, 2010
A former president
jailed for graft, a retired head of military police
indicted for embezzlement, three top judges accused of
taking bribes — the list goes on. Taiwan has a problem
with corruption.
"Social values are distorted to the extent that being
clean has come to count as a plus for a civil servant
rather than a basic requirement," said George Tsai, a
political scientist at Chinese Culture University in
Taipei.
“It takes time to eradicate corruption but people's
patience is limited and they are demanding quick
results.
“Corruption in Taiwan is at a critical junction and
the government and people have to do more,”
“Otherwise, politically how can Taiwan say to the
world that its democracy should be followed by others,
especially China,” he said.
“Has Taiwan democracy solved
the corruption problem? No, and
Chen Shui-bian is the best proof
of that,”....
“But if we look at
Singapore
and Hong Kong, they prove that
even without western-style
democracy Asian regimes can
establish good governance.”
(By Peter Harmsen, AFP)
PS: All above are abstractions from original articles in int'l media.
For precise meanings pls refer to Chinese version
article.
