Tseng Steps Down, Wang Jin-pyng in the crosshairs

Wedding photos can break out anywhere.

Whoa, the Taipei Times reports on the recent developments.

Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) yesterday accused Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office Head Prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) of illegally lobbying for a lawsuit involving Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).

Tseng announced his resignation later yesterday.

A spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID), Yang Jung-tsung (楊榮宗), told a press conference earlier yesterday that after Ker on June 18 was found not guilty of embezzling funds from Formosa Telecom, he asked Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to lobby Tseng and Chen to use their influence to stop a prosecutor from appealing the case with the Supreme Court.

The piece goes on to say that Tseng and Chen are unlikely to face criminal charges because they didn't get any tangible rewards like kickbacks. You mean it's not a criminal act to use the power of your office in this way? Say what?

Meanwhile the papers here are having a field day, interpreting events here as a power play within the KMT, a charge made by Ker, who said the whole thing is being orchestrated by President Ma Ying-jeou. Wang Jin-pyng, the KMT Speaker of the Legislature, a Taiwanese politician from Kaohsiung, and longtime Ma rival, was in Malaysia but was ordered to return to Taiwan by Ma (who is KMT Chairman).

The Taipei Times reported on the allegations that the whole thing was a power play.

Wang does not have a position within the KMT, but as legislative speaker and a key figure in the party’s localization factions, he has had great influence over the party.

Wang also represents the KMT’s old power bloc, along with party heavyweights including former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), and has had problematic relations with Ma in the wake of fierce competition over the KMT chairmanship in 2005.

Wang's position is interesting. In the 2005 KMT chairmanship election Ma beat Wang on his strength among the party rank and file, while party elites all supported Wang. The "localization factions" remark points to Wang's position as the unofficial leader of the "southern legislators", a representative term for KMT legislators from south and central Taiwan (Wang is a southerner) who are often at odds with the party's mainlander elites in the bitter struggle over internal power and patronage network resource flows. The KMT has always attempting to suppress the growth of regional and national networks of local leaders, part of its divide-and-rule approach to controlling Taiwan.

Given Wang's longstanding rivalry with Ma, and his position as an informal power broker, he makes a nifty target. No wonder the local papers are alive with speculation that Wang's downfall is the real goal of this investigation. Local reporters were saying that the SID sent around text messages to all the reporters -- not once, but twice -- to invite them to attend the press conference, saying there would be big news. The reporters all said that was rare. At the press conference the SID played the tapes for the reporters. The reader can draw their own conclusions about whether the SID was playing politics.

Another issue deserves highlighting. There is the possibility that someone here may face criminal charges. Yet, as is so often the case in major criminal and political investigations, key evidence is being systematically leaked -- this case, the recordings of the conversations between Ker, Wang, and Tseng -- have been made public. This is trial by media, a feature of other political cases, such as those swirling about Chen Shui-bian. Think anyone in the SID will be reprimanded for this? Ha.
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Daily Links:

• Costa Rican cabdrivers prefer Taiwan to China.
• The US releases an updated version of the CRS report on the evolution of America's One China policy, which does not include Taiwan. The ROC gets all tetchy about it.
• "Native languages" to be required in schools. One class per week.....
• Poll on mayoral race for Taipei (Taipei Times/KMT News organ)

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