Is it looking like a pattern yet? ....it came to my ears that DPP Yunlin County Mayor Su Chih-fen was taken into custody at 6 am this morning by prosecutors for questioning in relation to charges of accepting bribes in an alleged corruption scandal over a waste treatment plant. Su is still under questioning.In addition, the Special Investigation Unit this morning issued a subpoena for former presidential deputy secretary general Ma Yung-cheng, the first one for Ma, as a defendant in the first family "money laundering" and state affairs fund case and did not exclude applying to put Ma under investigative detention.
People in detention are held incommunicado and may not respond to the false reports and "leaks" that appear in the media.
Stay tuned as this news may change as more details come in.
[Taiwan]
22 comments:
Prosecutors seem to like their new powers...
Hey, wait a minute!
I just noticed that all the people they are prosecuting and taking into custody are members of the Democratic Progressive Party!
Hey! That doesn't seem right at all...
It would be great if actual corruption was being prosecuted and sentences with teeth were being levied against parties found guilty in a court of law.
Unfortunately, the powers of prosecution are being levied unevenly against only one political party. The scope and depth of illegal and unethical activity, organized crime, bribes and pay-offs is so great, nothing can be done.
The KMT is corrupt in its very DNA. The cancer brought by the KMT to Taiwan has infected every part of the state apparatus and progressed to infect all those who have direct and indirect contact with the state. Anyone who works in a school, runs a business, or applies for a license understands how deep corruption runs in Taiwan and this degrades the entire society. Every agency is on the take... and expects to be taken. There is little secret about it.
Corruption is a type of real currency in Taiwan and the idea of chasing a few politicians is selective, persecutory, politics driven and futile... unless Taiwanese are willing to start over from a fresh constitution with a new compact and a desire to end this behavior across the board.
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Now..now..now...
Let's be fair here. The police will arrest anyone waving the R.O.C. flag now. It doesn't matter what your political stripe. The man with the coiffed hairdo is now in town.
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Taiwan is a like a frog that is slowly being boiled. Everyday there is new news that taken separately, we'd say it's an abuse of power, but nothing that couldn't be fixed, especially with some pressure from the media.
But taken together, there is clearly an agenda here. The government is growing its power dangerously in a concerted ideology and effort.
Watching the police lower their own flags (even just along the car route of Chen Yunlin) while ripping flags out of the hands of bystanders and even an umbrella with a flag! We are regressing to the 1945-early 1990s authoritarian KMT party-state, but at least that KMT knew the dangers of the CPP.
If this is persecution then the KMT will suffer in the long run when these people are acquitted. If they're convicted then I don't think people can complain, unless it's clear they did nothing wrong.
raj, I don't think it's that simple. Whether these politicians are convicted or not, the damage to the image of the DPP is already done. If you have ever watched pro-Blue talk shows, you would know that many Blues in Taiwan believe Chen Shui-bian stole billions of NT, even if there is no evidence of this. There is zero evidence of this, and you can imagine what happens when a DPP politician in office is indicted.
Also, for officials that are indicted while in office, the weight of the investigation is quite heavy and they lose the ability to push for policies.
Chen Shui-bian is a perfect example. Midway through his term, all of a sudden, he was even more lameduck than he already was and the very hostile legislature somehow stepped it up several notches. The evidence of wrongdoing then (by the president or his family) was nowhere near clear and a lot less controversial than the overseas funds he is currently being investigated for.
On top of all that, there's always the chance that you might get convicted when you're actually innocent... the chances of a conviction when there's no indictment is 0. The chances of a conviction when you're indicted, regardless of your innocence, are very real.
One last counterexample. Hsieh Ching-jyh was found innocent in the Tainan Science Park case. Did you even know about that? Does anyone in Taiwan? Does anyone care? It sure was a big deal in Chinese-language news when he was first indicted. But the damage was already done, and no one remembers who brought up the indictment and the responsibility falls on no one...
The CCP does the same thing in China, allowing for yet another parallel between the former enemies turned happy bedfellows. Most of the high-profile cases there come to light either because the public has caught wind or because someone in power is making a scapegoat or doing away with someone from another faction. Who really thinks Shanghai's Cheng Liangyu would have been convicted if he were favoured by those at the top?
Will they suffer though, Raj? Eliminate your opposition and turn the mirrors away from your own failings and others may simply not be in a position to challenge you. Moreover, as I am sure you know, it is not that hard to drum up some charges. Ma was guilty as heck, although perhaps not in an exceedingly criminal way. The courts ruled in favour of him for doing something that most politicians do. Had the tables been turned, would the result have been the same? I am not so sure. The point is that in a place like Taiwan, it is not that hard to dig up at least some dirt.
Just asking, will you be coming over for the rally on thursday ?
Bye Bye Taiwan,
The Police is wearing ROC uniforms but acting PRC.
Waving Taiwanese Flags in Taiwan has become illegal.
Mr. Ma is just a few months in office. Think what damage he will do to Taiwan in 4 years.
I will have to apply for my next Visa to go to Taipei in Beijing.
KTM "Mainland" gangs run the politics and anyone is Taiwanese want to get rid of them it will get bloody. There is a reason each president has sent flowers to the funerals of crime bosses.
The gangs have too much to gain and too much to lose. Corruption will continue.
The police are acting against the laws of the nation. They are violating civil liberties and nobody cares.
What's the big deal? Where was the outrage by the Greenies when Ma was being prosecuted?
Now, the political pendulum is swing the other way. However, I am still waiting for Chen to be indicted. There gotta be some good dirt there.
If the voters don't like it, they can always vote the bluies out of office.
An record store was playing patriotic music (probably the I love ROC kind that some of the middle-aged generation and retired ROC soldiers have nostalgia for) and was shutdown by police today. This is getting outrageous. I never felt scared in Taiwan before...
It is very fun to read what you guys posted. Clearly, you guys have no idea on what Chen was asking during his administration for certain favors. Let's just say it makes KMT look like an amateur, hence the overall system is so screwed up today. O well, you guys won't listen anyway.
I've read some more reports about what has been going on in Taipei, and it's certainly not good. Is this just a taste of what is to come, or can this be averted in the future?
The concern is whether these selective prosecutions are aimed to prevent the possibility of voting the KMT out of power. From this position the KMT can secure whatever deals it wants with China and they will win every election by destroying the opposition. Every one of them should go to jail. I could probably count the clean politicians in Taiwan on one hand.
Yes, Ia, the voters can vote them out of office in 2012....if the people still have a right to vote then!
Yo, turn on the news channels... the same scene plays out over and over again... person wears certain clothing, holds a flag, says "Taiwan independence" or other slogan... police in large numbers surround him grab him, push him to the ground, pick him up, push him some more... the person asks "tell me what i've done wrong?" repeatedly, repeatedly, again, and again, and again, "what law have i broken?"... silence... "what law have i broken? stop pushing. stop grabbing me"... It's answered by more silence or exhortions to "come", "move forward".
It's agonizing to watch... I want to cry...
I do not so much think they will try to suspend voting as much as they will attemt to undermine any credible opposition to give voters as little choice as possible. This is a similar tactic to how the KMY attempted to marginalize the DPP in the early 90's by making them out to be a bunch of disorganized hoodlums and then filling the vacuum with local gang bosses. The KMT at that time had much better organizational control to mobilize support through "soft" pressure, like kick backs, patronage, resource allocation and other pressures. They are putting these mechanisms back in place. Remember how James Soong built his empire in central Taiwan with government and party money and strategic ties to organized crime... If people don't stand up now... get ready for the CHILL.
The gangsters want to exploit their contacts in China and make billions... the KMT wants power and is now owned by the gangsters, enough so that the voice of the constituents is drowned out by the organized crime groups which have heavy economic interests in cross strait deals.
Okay okay, so the KaoHsiung Incident already happened. What will we call this? KaoHsiung Incident... Redux? Part Deux? KMT Strikes Back? Come on guys, grab the popcorn and give it a good title.
Come on, from police illegally arresting and attacking people from unfurling ROC flags while letting the PRC supports in Taiwan show theirs, to the prosecutors in Taiwan targeting DPP politicians and jailing them a year and a month (especially for helping ARATS Zhang up and picking up his glasses), yet giving VIP status on 10/10 to the crazy guy whom kicked former President Chen, shows the Ma administration is fine with returning to authoritarian rule.
2012 election... have always been uneasy saying that the DPP will have another shot at Taiwan again in 2012, and now, the 2012 elections are starting to seem like a fairytale.
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