Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) spokespersons yesterday urged voters unhappy with the acquittal of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), on money laundering and corruption charges to vent their displeasure on Nov. 27, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of attempting to “hijack” the judiciary.
Not content with a politicised panel of SIP prosecutors who vowed publicly to find Chen guilty before the trials began, the KMT is seeking to link the Chen verdict to the DPP. Asking voters to vote on a court case outcome is a tactic of distraction, necessary since Mayor Hau has been under a very uncomfortable spotlight for a series of irregularities in Taipei City Government overpayment on tenders for major public works such as renovation of an overpass and budgets for the Flora Expo. Unfortunately, prosecutors have recently been very busy uncovering a whole range of graft that has impacted the KMT more than the DPP. Just today for example, three more judges and a former KMT County Commissioner (who fled to China) are being cited for bribes and corruption. Yet Chen is the KMT's straw man - having been tried by media and found guilty before the facts, the KMT has built him up to be corruption personified and, importantly, a stick with which to beat the DPP by association. The fact that the KMT has massively overplayed their hand in using Chen this way indicates, to my mind, their desperation as they perceive potential heavy defeats in the Nov 27th elections. The KMT seem to believe that most Taiwanese are disgusted by Chen and his 'rampant corruption (TM)', a tarnished reputation they carefully constructed, so will reject the DPP accordingly.
KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世) urged the DPP’s mayoral candidates in the special municipality elections to explain their position on Friday’s court ruling, adding: “Please tell the electorate whether you think people who take bribes should be acquitted.” Lin called on the DPP caucus to help pass the Judges’ Act in the legislature. The committee review of the bill has been brought forward from next week to this week. Lin also urged voters to go to the polls, saying the message they send will signal their expectations of the judiciary.
This is a baiting tactic. The KMT are pressuring the DPP to take a stand on the Chen acquittal in the hope that it splits the DPP along faction lines. The Chen faction has a number of candidates running in the City Council elections. The KMT figure that if they can scare some DPP candidates into denouncing the verdict, those DPP who don't will seem out of touch with the 'public opinion' they have constructed.
While KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) described Judge Chou Chan-chun’s (周占春) verdict as “gutsy,” she said it represented “covert encouragement” for public servants to commit graft. The Taipei District Court said it found no evidence that Chen took NT$600 million (US$20 million) in exchange for promises not to block separate mergers initiated by Cathay Financial Holdings (國泰金控) and Yuanta Financial Holdings (元大金控). “As long as you are skillful, you don’t have to take the money, but your wife and relatives can accept it on your behalf because they don’t have any direct connection with your job,” Hung said. “It’s unbelievable to see such a ruling.” Some people have been so disappointed that they have decided not to vote, Hung said. “If you stay home, the government that made you so angry will return to power,” she said. “The real reason why the DPP wants to win all five mayoral seats is that they want to protect Chen’s judicial rights. If the DPP wins the elections, corruption will be rampant, but not a single corrupt public servant will be held responsible. Is this what you really want?”
This is truly priceless. Hung here is scaremongering par excellence. First, she implies that the Judge's decision was made out of personal conviction and a desire to test the boundaries of judicial conduct and then suggests the verdict will encourage judicial corruption. Hung accuses the judiciary and Chen of perverting the law. As we will see later this appears to be a smoke and mirrors tactic. Second, she claims the result of the court case is 'unbelievable', itself a severe disrespect to the supposed independence and expertise of te judiciary, and then posits that the ruling has been the key motivational factor in dissuading people (here she implies KMT supporters) from voting. Here comes more fear - if voters stay at home, the dreaded DPP government will return. The next claim is absurd - we are supposed to believe that the DPP wants to win all five elections so they can 'protect Chen's judicial rights'. Is that it? That's the entire campaign rationale of the DPP? She could have said that the DPP wanted to win so they could pressure the judiciary to release Chen but then no-one would have believed that they could even if they won mostly because these are local not national elections. The linking of Chen to the elections - to make Chen a major meme of run in is tenuous to say the least, and it is glaring for it. Her last comment that corruption will be rampant and no one will be held responsible is as, if not more, polemical and absurd as anything 'Tea Party' candidates in the US said before the Midterms.
KMT Legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) said that if the KMT loses the elections, Taiwan would become a “corrupt island” and a “dishonest country.” Saying he was “shocked” to see the judiciary become “Chen’s personal hit men,” Chung urged voters to come out to banish “dinosaur judges” and protect the judicial system. “The ruling clears the name of the KMT, which has been accused of using the judicial system to serve its own interests,” he said.
I spoke too soon. The ante just got raised further. Here Chung sees Hung's hysteria and raises her frothing mania. Taiwan would become a corrupt island and a dishonest country? He forgot to mention that if the DPP wins swarms of mosquitos will suck babies dry in the streets, Chinese gangs will pimp every Taiwanese woman and every Taiwanese man will be castrated, 100 typhoons will strike the island and your mother will get syphilis and die. Missed a chance methinks. Nevertheless, Chang throws in a wild accusation that the judiciary has become 'Chen's hit men'. This is clever. Mencius says: If guilty of a crime, one must accuse your opponents of the same crime, no matter how ridiculous, so that the public may hold the same opinion of all. Ok Mencius didn't say that - that's from the KMT Play Book of Fixing Elections 1912 ~ current. Perhaps the KMT have been so involved with the Chen case that they now percieve the public as a) tired of the story and b) curious as to why the KMT are so personally invested in this case including the 'irregularities' that have occurred during it. The KMT senses that the case might be seen as a witch hunt so Chung flips the switch and argues that the Judiciary, far from being manipulated by the KMT to persecute Chen is actually working for him.
KMT Legislator Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) said there was a significant gap between the verdict and public opinion since various opinion polls showed a majority of respondents were unhappy with the verdict.
This is conjecture and speculation designed to generate a publicly shared impression that most of the public strongly disagreed with the verdict. Also, a standard tactic of citing polls as evidence without providing details. Note to KMT: public opinion has little to do with court decisions, especially in a Republic. Due process, not some political hack's opinion, is the determinant of guilt. The public may have been unhappy that the Sun-An Trio murder defendants didn't get executed yet now evidence strongly suggests that they never committed the crime - if they are acquitted on Friday will the KMT cite this too as out of line with pubic expectations?
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said a private group calling itself the anti-corruption alliance placed a half-page ad in the Chinese-language China Times and United Daily News yesterday (This 'alliance' is a likely KMT creation masquerading as a independent public group) criticizing the ruling and urging voters to use their ballots to recover Taiwan’s honesty and justice. Fai urged the DPP’s Taipei mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Sinbei City mayoral candidate (and DPP Chairperson) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to say where they stood on the issue. Fai also challenged Su to renew his claims that the corruption accusations against Chen were politically motivated.
The ad links Tsai and Su to Chen explicitly. The message is clear: guilty by association. Also more baiting from Fai in the hope that the DPP will say something that can be used against them. I hope the DPP stay wise to this and don't respond.
Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), a former DPP member, broke his silence to slam the verdict. Approached for comment after visiting former Kaohsiung mayor Su Nan-cheng (蘇南成) for support, Yang said the verdict failed to live up to public expectations, and that it was wrong to take money from other people. Yang’s campaign spokeswoman Tseng Yin-li (曾尹儷) told reporters at a separate setting that Yang used to support Chen because he did not know the former president was “so corrupt.” Yang left the DPP to run as an independent.
Ah
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who is running for mayor of Greater Kaohsiung, urged the Control Yuan to censure Taipei District Court presiding Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) over the Chen verdict. Huang and KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) went to the Control Yuan to accuse Chou of neglecting his duties.
The also-ran in Kaohsiung plays the Censure hand - or as its also known - Trump the Ace with a Two. Pity the Control Yuan is a paper tiger otherwise that Two might have been a winning move. oh and please can Huang and Lin define 'neglecting duties' in this case.
Meanwhile, the DPP said the latest moves by KMT politicians targeting Chou were an attempt to “hijack” the judiciary. “Just because they are unhappy with the ruling, [the KMT] is willing to undermine the [independence] of the judiciary,” DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
DPP lawmakers said the KMT’s reaction, along with an “anti-corruption” rally the KMT is planning for Nov. 21, appear to be motivated by the upcoming elections.
I don't think this response from the DPP was too clever but also not too damaging. 'Hijack the judiciary' has shades of 1990s election memes but is probably one of the few responses that could cut through the KMT's Fog of War. The last statement is a ridiculous understatement of an obvious fact. Really? KMT actions 2 and a half weeks before a critical election are motivated by said elections? No ... I would never have thought that. Must Do Better. They need a response ad that lists all the corruption cases of KMT politicians from 2000 to 2010 and cases of judges, like the one today, where the judiciary has been corrupted by KMT. One simple message: Who's corrupt?
Ps: please can pan-green talk show hosts not go around swearing at the President. THIS DOES NOT HELP. It is impolite and unnecessary. All publicly shared thought must be restrained, logical, factual and reasoned. It can be delivered with passion but not vitriol.
