I most certainly do not support electoral fraud, and I am glad he has lost his seat.
At least it show the judicial system is functioning.[/quote]
At least on the civil side if not on the criminal.
The real problems with the Chen case, and the difference between the persecution of some DPP officials versus that of KMT officials, is less in the cases than in the witch-hunt mentality behind them. The amount of press that the KMT media gives the Chen case, even for stupid crap like what Chen eats in jail, is ridiculous. No court case should be conducted like a carnival. But a carnival the KMT press has indeed made it.
Secondly, Chen’s human rights have been violated whether he is guilty or innocent of the corruption cases. The Ministry of Justice has provided no credible evidence that Chen would flee the country, and they have completed their gathering of evidence. There is no reason to keep him in jail. Chen also was unable to formulate a proper defence. He was not allowed the private conversations with his legal representatives which would make the formulation of this defence possible. This was legal under Taiwanese law, but the law itself violated human rights. And when the law was amended by the legislature, it was specifically decided that it would come into affect at a time that would exclude the Chen case. There was the judge switcheroo of course. There was also the law skit, which showed the bias of prosecutors. Then, of course, before the case began, the prosecutorial team made a statement swearing that they would find evidence to convict Chen. No impartiality here, please move along…
I don’t like Chen mainly because I think that he is a big reason that the DPP lost direction and suffers from a bad reputation now. He has done a huge disservice to Taiwan and placed the island’s future in jeopardy as a result. However, you cannot compare his case to the recent cases where KMT legislators have lost their posts. The KMT losers have not been subject to any sort of witch hunt. Moreover, they have often dealt with a much more flexible system. Why did Diana Chen have to go? Because enough dirt was eventually dug up on her that she ran out of excuses. Then, SHE RESIGNED! How much criticism did we hear from the KMT? Not a lot. The howls came from the opposition.
How about the Miaoli case? Sure, the vote buyer in question had to step down eventually. But the KMT had absolutely no compunction about letting HIS WIFE run for the office. What wonderful flexibility on the part of the KMT.
Did the system work in these cases? Maybe. But it is interesting how the system can be allowed to “do its job” at times when the politician in question is blue, but a witch hunt is required when the politician is green – one who beat KMT opponents twice in fair elections no less.
I hope the KMT will not nominate him for the seat. It would only further confirm their culture of corruption.
Don’t think for a second the culture of corruption isn’t rampant on both sides of the fence.
This was in today’s Taipei Times.
[quote]JUSTICE: In another court case, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng was found guilty of corruption for accepting money to lobby on behalf of a construction company
The Nantou District Court on Wednesday convicted DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) and his former aide Yao Sheng-chih (姚昇志) for corruption and accepting bribes. Gao was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
His former aide was sentenced to two years and four months. Both were stripped of civil duties for two years.
Gao was indicted in October 2007 by Nantou prosecutors for accepting bribes from a businessman in exchange for lobbying for him.
Prosecutors alleged that Yao received NT$2 million (US$60,000) in April from a construction company in exchange for his promise to lobby the National Property Administration (NPA) to help the company win the rights to lease a piece of land belonging to the Taichung City Government.
Gao is alleged to have taken NT$500,000 of the NT$ 2 million.
Prosecutors said Gao summoned NPA Director Kuo Wu-po (郭武博) and other agency officials to attend legislative meetings so he could ask them about renting the land to the company.
Gao yesterday said he would appeal.[/quote]
there is one difference between them both… one bought votes, the other received money from a company (which in Taiwan can be either a bribe or a political contribution) in which the prosecution cut a deal with his assistant to be a testimony. Now, I don’t want to say that he is not guilty (who am I to judge), but this is not certainly the same case as the KMT legislators.
Another one bites the dust.
This time it is Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) down here in Taichung. Three for vote-buying with at least two more pending, plus Diane Lee. Great job of cleaning things up KMT.
Well at least the judiciary is going after them. Vote buying has the obvious risk of getting caught, and is becoming less effective. Local factions are gradually weakening.
I wouldn’t say that it is a case of the judiciary “going after them” as much as the victims of vote buying taking them to task and to the judiciary for adjucature. But, it is a nice thing to see. This will also hopefully add on to the growing anti-KMT sentiment and help out in some of the closer races for December in addition to the gains the DPP are almost guaranteed to get anyway.
Are they really “going after them”? It’s business as usual for everyone. The legislators buy votes because the public expects it. They are routinely caught, no big deal, it’s part of the process. Go back as far as you like in time, you’ll find KMT legislators regularly busted for vote buying, doing time, and then coming back into politics (it would be easy to give examples of convicted vote buyers obtaining positions, like the current mayor of Keelung, as I recall). It’s irrelevant because the factions will simply put up another faction member, uncle, brother, nephew, or the guy’s wife, as in Miaoli or the last Taitung county commissioner election. These are representatives of enterprises farming the government public construction funds. Getting busted is part of the cost of doing business.
The real problem, at least as I see it, is threefold (1) an electorate that expects and demands vote buying and votes on their relationship with their legislator and whether their palms are greased, not the policies of his party; (2) the existence of the local factions that are little more than organized crime gangs; and (3) the political culture that expects exchanges of monetary and similar favors for votes.
I admit I do not see a way out of the problem. How does one effect massive, far-reaching cultural change like that? Building civic culture is probably the only way, but that is a multigenerational project. I see hopeful things among today’s young.
BTW, the excellent book Heijin about the culture of corruption is partly available on Google Books. Well worth exploring.
Vorkosigan
Right, but the more they get busted the higher the cost of doing business. What is interesting is that the vote buying and factional mobilization seems to be becoming less effective. More people are voting on the basis of ideology or policy preferences. This is what one would expect as a society modernizes. It is no coincidence that factions are most powerful and vote buying is most important in less developed areas of Taiwan. In Taipei it hardly exists.
The recent results in Penghu and Yunlin were interesting. The Penghu gambling plan was backed by powerful local politicians, but they only managed to mobilize little over 10,000 people to vote for the plan. Given that some of those people would have voted yes without any encouragement, it is clear that the ability of local factions to get votes by vote buying or guanxi ties is severely limited.
In Yunlin the two KMT factions votes combined were less that the DPP candidate. Of course, it is now much more difficult for factions to get their guy elected because of the reduction in the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan. If a faction can only mobilize 20,000 votes through guanxi and vote buying, this is clearly not enough. Taidong is the same-the KMT faction down there doesn’t have that many votes (turnouts are very low), but for some reason the DPP is very weak in Taidong so the KMT always win easily.
[quote]The real problem, at least as I see it, is threefold (1) an electorate that expects and demands vote buying and votes on their relationship with their legislator and whether their palms are greased, not the policies of his party; (2) the existence of the local factions that are little more than organized crime gangs; and (3) the political culture that expects exchanges of monetary and similar favors for votes.
I admit I do not see a way out of the problem. How does one effect massive, far-reaching cultural change like that? Building civic culture is probably the only way, but that is a multigenerational project. I see hopeful things among today’s young.[/quote]
I would expect that as modernization proceeds, factions will become weaker. People is Taipei don’t vote for factions, because the factions can’t offer them anything. Essentially, in a modernized society, people don’t have to rely on factions for jobs, favours etc.
Another factor is that DPP attacks against vote buying have had an effect. Once vote buying was considered normal, now it is morally dubious.
Thanks I will take a look.
[quote=“sandman”] Ma recently claimed his “learn simplified” was actually an exhortation for China to use traditional characters in cross-strait documents. Yet astonishingly, we find that Taiwantrade.com has today launched a version of its website in simplified characters.Honestly, you couldn’t make this shit up! Not even with a whole team of award-winning comedy writers! Too funny! :roflmao: Hey, you greenies, how does Ma’s knob FEEEEEL![/quote] Speaking of comedy value - that should piss off the Blueys just as much as any Greenies. The Greenies may not like having to cater to China, but from what I’ve seen it’s the Blueys who are indignant about the fact that the Commies ‘ruined’ the Chinese writing system by simplifying it. Obviously the Blueys can stand a little pain from the same knob but try not to wince as long as they think the Greenies will suffer.
Man, this thread is a neverending story…
[quote]
Another KMT lawmaker stripped of seat for vote-buying
Central News Agency
2009-10-27 05:38 PM
Taipei, Oct. 21 (CNA) Legislator Liao Cheng-ching of the ruling Kuomintang from Taoyuan County was stripped of his legislative seat by the Taiwan High Court Tuesday for vote-buying.
The court threw out his appeal against a lower court’s ruling that annulled his election, on the grounds that his offer of NT$30,000 each to several borough administrators and relatives in return for their promises to solicit votes for him during his election campaign constituted vote-buying.
The verdict is not subject to appeal. However, Liao challenged the court’s ruling, saying he was not given a fair trial and he vowed to ask the Control Yuan to intervene.
Liao is the fourth KMT lawmaker in 11 months to be stripped of his seat by the court because of vote-buying.
In a separate trial in September, he was sentenced by a criminal court in Taoyuan County to three and half years in prison, also for vote buying.
That case is pending in the Taiwan High Court, as Liao appealed the verdict.
The KMT won 81 of the 113 seats that were at stake in the 2008 legislative elections.
(By Maubo Chang)
KMT corruption – the gift that keeps on giving.
Still one more in the appeals process. Four Legislative Yuan legislators knocked down for vote buying, one for being a US citizen … vote buying scandal for the central committee elections (for which prosecutors should be investigating as it also violates election law)…