(Taipei Film Center - used to shoot movies with historical settings - note the towers, ramparts, walls and houses. Now apparently abandoned, wouldn't this be a perfect tourist spot right next to a nice river and opposite Soochow University?)
Taiwan News Editorial on the KMT's moves to cement the positions of elected officials in the new municipalities after the elections later this year. - The revisions to the law appear to be at best very crude gerrymandering or at worst highly cynical attempts to restrict the impact of the results of upcoming elections on administrative control of districts in the new municipalities. Unfortunately it appears that some people in Taiwan don't understand the concept of an elected official: namely that it is not the right to a job for life with a free passport to shady industrial-civic relations but a fixed term tenure dependent upon performance as judged by the public. New election, new officials not new election same faces.
The Chiou Ho-shun Case and the problems it highlights in Taiwan's Judicial system. (Thanks to EVA for the link)
Celia Llopis-jepsen 游思麗 of The Taipei Times discusses the backsliding of judicial reform, some of the reasons why and what needs to be done.
One of the key judicial issues it seems to me is the role of the Supreme Court to either agree with a High Court Guilty decision or to ask the High Court to reconsider. This leads to an endless to and fro between the two, often at the expense of the accused, who are often regarded as guilty until proven innocent. The ages of the judges (mostly in their 60's and perhaps influenced by a 'martial law mindset' that is inherently conservative), combined with the active pressure victim's families bring upon judges and courts have arguably resulted in life sentences for those accused whom the evidence in their favour has been overlooked or ignored. Chen Shui-bian himself is in such a High Court-Supreme Court tussle himself over his continued detention.
