Institutionalized Corruption in Taiwan – Can it Be Stopped?

[Dirt]

@hansioux

That’s because under Chiangs’ dictatorships selective prosecution was used as a way to intimidate and coerce people into falling in line. Whenever the police bust you, if it was not for a political purpose, then the police were just trying to extort bribes and have a quick pay day.

The police didn’t bother doing anything, unless a case receives national attention and there’s pressure coming from above, then everyone scrambles to find a scapegoat. Find a likely enough suspect, then torture to get a confession, that’s the police’s goto technique. It was that way as late as the early 1990s. The police tortured the “suspects” in the Lu Zheng (陸政) abduction case, and even recorded themselves torturing the suspects and talking about how easy it was to get them to say anything they wanted. It was also that way in the Jiang Guoqing (江國慶) case, where Jiang was accuse of raping and killing a five-year old gril. Jiang was executed in 1997. They found the real killer Xu Rongzhou (許榮洲) in the year 2000. They tortured an confession out of Jiang and then killed him.

The average Taiwanese children who grew up before 2000 were taught to fear the police. So when the rule of law is actually enforced, it feels like a punishment rather than justice being served.

The police needs to shake their past images, and to do so they need to become efficient, impartial and professional. Same goes for prosecutors and judges. With the handling of the CSB cases and KMT corruption cases, such as the one by Lin Shiyi, let’s just say they have ways to go to be redeemed in the minds of the public.

Fear the police? Really? Once, when I was back in Taiwan, my uncle got stopped by a police car. It pulled up in front of him when he stopped. My uncle walked out of the car, walked to the police car and stuck his head in their car and talked to them. There was no fear. And, try doing that in the USA and you’d get shot.

[headhonchoII]

It’s the side of the coin called ‘police not doing anything.’.
Who cares what the USA ate for breakfast?

[dulan_drift]

@Dirt

Fear the police? Really? Once, when I was back in Taiwan, my uncle got stopped by a police car. It pulled up in front of him when he stopped. My uncle walked out of the car, walked to the police car and stuck his head in their car and talked to them. There was no fear. And, try doing that in the USA and you’d get shot.

Haha! I can picture that scenario well…
I think you will find that it’s all about what comes down from above.

I have spoken to a couple of police and asked why they do nothing to investigate blatant corruption in Taidong and they say they are not able to initiate investigations by themselves - for that kind of high-level crime, it has to be a directive from the highest level. And given the possibility that ‘the highest level’ of the police is in it up to their necks, i wouldn’t expect them to be taking action any time soon.

Meanwhile, 15 police burst through the door of a foreigner’s house, after tapping his phone for several months. It’s supposed to be hard to get a phone-tap but apparently they got one based solely on the fabricated accusations of a disgruntled business competitor who claimed he was growing weed. He wasn’t. Nor was there anything on the phone tap that indicated he was.

You would have to ask why are the police spending so much time and money on a very dubious case like that when there is massive corruption staring them in the face - none of which gets investigated.

[afterspivak]

@headhonchoII

the side of the coin called ‘police not doing anything.’

Here’s one explanation why, this time from New Taipei City:

Senior New Taipei police official detained for corruption - Focus Taiwan

Guy

[Explant]

Can’t be stopped, but I think we can all agree the corruption over the years has at least gone down. Not perfect, not even good, but not the wrong direction either.

[Brianjones]

@dulan_drift

Knocking the hotel down, i don’t see as a big problem and i’m fairly confident it will happen - all the stuff is brand spanking new and i am sure there are several companies that would pay for the contract to demolish it if they get to keep the spoils.

Well the case was won but the empty hotel is still sitting there, it does have some facility for providing changing and wash rooms which ironically are usually missing from Taiwan beaches.

[Brianjones]

Wow, potentially very high level corruption in the CID.

The New Taipei District Prosecutors directed a wave of searches on Tuesday, bringing the acting deputy commander of the New Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), surnamed Cheng (鄭), back for questioning.

Police are one part of it, judges are another part.

The four officers are suspected of attending a banquet with gangsters in 2023, where they are believed to have leaked information on the progress of ongoing investigations, law enforcement sources said.

Not much fear if they were attending banquets face to face.

[afterspivak]

Meanwhile, KMT legislator Sra Kacaw (Indigenous representative; Amis) is back in the news. Here’s some nuanced analysis on this case from Brian Hioe who, writing at New Bloom, tries to unfold the layers of issues at stake in this corruption case.

Sra Kacaw Corruption Controversy Points to Interrelated Issues | New Bloom...

Guy

[Marco]

First Nations voting for the KMT is like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.

[ChewDawg]

@Marco

First Nations voting for the KMT is like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.

Well, there is history. The aboriginals were forced into the mountains by who? The Fujian fishermen hundreds of years ago.

So it does make sense that a 10 percent Mainlander cohort would co-opt business minded folk, aboriginals, etc. in any coalition against DPP. It’s why the Taidong/Hualian area is deep blue, no?