Iranian military test-fires missiles ahead of talks

REUTERS, TEHRAN
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 1

Iran test-fired missiles yesterday to show it was prepared to head off any military threat, four days before the Islamic Republic is scheduled to hold rare talks with world powers worried about its nuclear ambitions.

The missile maneuvers coincide with escalating tension in Iran’s nuclear row with the West, after last week’s disclosure by Tehran that it is building a second uranium enrichment plant.

News of the nuclear facility south of Iran added a sense of urgency to a crucial meeting in Geneva on Thursday between Iranian officials and representatives of six major powers.

An Iranian official warned “fabricated Western clamor” over the new plant would negatively affect the talks at which the six powers want Iran to agree to open its facilities to inspection to prove its program is for power and not nuclear weapons.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s International Atomic Energy Agency envoy, said, referring to the six powers’ concern over the new plant: “This Western approach will have a negative impact on Iran’s negotiations with the five-plus-one countries.”

US President Barack Obama said on Saturday the discovery of the secret nuclear plant in Iran showed a “disturbing pattern” of evasion by Tehran that added urgency to its talks on Thursday with world powers.

Obama warned Iran on Friday it would face “sanctions that bite” if it did not come clean.

Earlier this month, Obama dropped a plan by the previous administration to deploy missiles in Poland that had been proposed as a shield amid concerns Iran was trying to develop nuclear warheads it could mount on long-range missiles.

Iran’s missils “give us the possibility to confront every kind of threat with a long-­lasting defense deterrence,” Iranian General Hossein Salami said yesterday.

“The message of this maneuver is for some domineering countries whose intention is to create fear, to say that we are able to come up with an appropriate response to their enmity with high speed and precision,” Salami, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) air force, said on the IRGC Web site.

The IRGC launched at least two different types of short-range missiles on the exercise’s first day and also tested a multiple missile launcher, Iranian media said.

State radio said the IRGC would test-fire the Shahab 3 missile, which Iranian officials say has a range of about 2,000km, today, potentially putting Israel and US bases in the Gulf within reach. It was last tested in the middle of last year.

Yunlin defeat a warning to KMT: Wu Poh-hsiung
　

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: While KMT heavyweights reflected on the meaning of Saturday’s vote, former vice president Annette Lu said that the DPP should not rest on its laurels
　

By Mo Yan-chih, Loa Iok-sin and Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTERS
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 1

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday acknowledged that the defeat in Saturday’s Yunlin legislative by-election was a warning for the party, but said the KMT would continue party reform efforts by presenting candidates with integrity and a clean image.

“[Saturday’s result] sends us a warning and we will reflect upon ourselves deeply,” Wu said after voting in the KMT Central Committee election at the party’s Taipei branch.

KMT candidate Chang Ken-hui (張艮輝) lost Saturday’s by-­election to his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) by a wide margin, handing a significant victory to the DPP, which prior to the vote held 27 legislative seats, one shy of a quarter of the 113-seat legislature.

Independent candidate Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), who left the KMT to run in the by-election, split the pan-blue votes by securing 22,747 votes in the by-election.

However, the combined number of votes for Chang Ken-hui and Chang Hui-yuan — 52,045 — was still short of Liu’s 74,272.

Wu said the party had not made a mistake in nominating Chang Ken-hui, a college professor with integrity and experience in local politics, and blamed the defeat on what he called the “special political environment” in Yunlin County.

“We insisted on nominating a candidate with a clean image and the KMT will keep up such reform efforts even though we have to pay a price in the process,” he said.

KMT heavyweights, including Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) blamed the party’s defeat on a pan-blue split and acknowledged that the by-election result had cast a shadow ahead of the local government elections in December.

“The party split, which resulted in dispersal of our strength and disappointed our supporters, is the main reason for the defeat ... The KMT needs to be more united facing the year-end elections,” Wu Den-yih said.

Hau said the result reflected voter disappointment with the poor performance of the government.

“People expressed their opinion with their votes and we should reflect on that,” he said.

The KMT’s defeat on Saturday was seen as a reflection of growing discontent with the government and a show of no confidence in President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

The KMT lost the Miaoli legislative by-election earlier this year. The defeat of former Department of Health minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川), Ma’s preferred candidate, in the KMT primary for the Hualien County commissioner election also raised questions about public confidence in the Ma leadership.

The risk of a pan-blue split also threatens the KMT in Taitung, Hualien, Hsinchu and Nantou counties, where the party is having difficulties integrating local factions for the upcoming local government elections.

Ma, who will take over as KMT chairman on Oct. 17, did not comment on the election.

Wu Poh-hsiung brushed off concerns about more defeats in year-end elections and said he would make every effort to negotiate with local factions.

Meanwhile, the DPP legislative caucus, buoyed by Saturday’s win, said it now had enough seats in the legislature to propose a recall of Ma.

However, there was no such plan at the moment, the DPP said.

According to the Constitution, the legislature can propose a presidential recall or request a revision to the Constitution, or ask the president to make a state of the nation address if at least one quarter of the legislature supports the proposal.

After Liu is sworn, the DPP will have 28 of the 113 seats in the legislature, meaning that it would need one additional voice to be able to initiate such proposals.

“To make things work, we need the help of one more legislator from either the KMT or the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union caucus,” DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) told the Taipei Times.

“We’ve already found the extra legislator we need — someone from another party has agreed to work with us if we are to make the proposal,” Wang said. “But I can’t tell you who the legislators is at the moment.”

Although the DPP has gathered enough support to submit a presidential recall proposal, Wang said the party would not consider such an option at the moment and would not abuse that power.

“We would only make the proposal if the recession persists, unemployment continues to grow or if the government tries to push for an economic cooperation framework agreement without the consent of or ratification by the legislature,” Wang said.

DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that by crossing the proposal threshold, the DPP had gained a powerful bargaining chip that would make it a more effective check and balance on government policies.

In response, the KMT caucus yesterday vowed to block any DPP-initiated proposal to unseat Ma.

KMT caucus secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said the caucus would kill any proposal in the KMT-dominated Procedure Committee.

Meanwhile, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday that the DPP must avoid taking a win in the year-end elections for granted following the party’s win in Yunlin.

Amid allegations of gang connections, vote-buying and factionalism, Lu said Yunlin residents exercised their wisdom and selected the best candidate. The victory was a good omen for the DPP ahead of December’s elections, she said.

Lu made the remarks during a visit to the campaign headquarters of DPP candidates for Changhua County commissioner Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) and Changhua County councilor Lin Wei-hao (林維浩).

The elections, scheduled for Dec. 5, will be held to select county commissioners, city mayors, county and city councilors and township and village wardens.

Lu praised Wong as someone who stuck to her ideals, adding that she and her husband were the only couple who dared to take her in after she was released from jail in the early 1990s. Lu was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the then- KMT administration on charges of “abetting a violent rebellion” for a 20-minute speech she made on the evening of the Kaohsiung Incident.

The incident, which took place in December 1979, involved a state crackdown on a human rights rally organized by Formosa Magazine, of which Lu was vice president in the 1970s.

Lu said Saturday’s election was necessary because the former Yunlin legislator had been charged with vote buying. She declined, however, to draw a connection between the KMT defeat and Ma’s lackluster performance, saying the legislative by-election was just a local election and that it was important for the DPP to work harder.

The election was held to fill the seat left vacant by the KMT’s Chang Sho-wen (張碩文), who won the seat in January last year, but lost it this year after the High Court found him guilty of taking part in a vote-buying scheme organized by his father, Chang Hui-yuan.

Chang Hui-yuan — who was found guilty of vote buying in the first trial — wanted to run as the KMT candidate in the election, but the party rejected his registration because its “black-gold exclusion clause” prevents party members found guilty of corruption in their first trial from standing for public office.

The fiercely fought by-election saw the three contenders attack and sue each other.

Chang Hui-yuan branded DPP candidate Liu Chien-kuo a “gangster” and accused KMT candidate Chang Ken-hui of buying votes.

Liu sued Chang Hui-yuan for slander.

Chang Sho-wen also filed a defamation lawsuit against Chang Ken-hui, accusing him of making groundless vote-buying allegations.

US academics decry unfair treatment in Chen trial
　

‘STENCH OF VINDICTIVENESS’: Arthur Waldron and Ma Ying-jeou’s former university professor, Jerome Cohen, said Chen should have an adequate chance to defend himself
　

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER , WASHINGTON
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 1

Two leading US academics — both with strong ties to Taiwan — have condemned the treatment of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and called for the case to be handled fairly.

Arthur Waldron, a professor of international relations at the University of Pennsylvania, said he was “shocked” by “the stench of vindictiveness” associated with Chen’s trial.

Law professor Jerome Cohen — a professor of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) at Harvard University — said that Chen faced the near-impossible task of defending himself from jail and was “fighting with one arm tied behind his back.”

Both were speaking at a Washington symposium “Towards Truth and Reconciliation in Taiwan,” organized by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), the Formosa Foundation, the Chen Wen-cheng Memorial Foundation and the Formosan Association for Human Rights.

Turning to the Chen case, Cohen said: “I am very concerned about the huge allegations of corruption. If he has committed crimes he should be prosecuted. But the proceedings should be fair. I still hope the courts will release him under circumstances that will guarantee that he does not flee, but will also guarantee that he has an adequate chance to defend himself as he appeals the sentence.”

“Taiwan has to act in ways that will build confidence and lead to internal reconciliation. They do not want to perpetuate the very bitter divisions that now exist,” Cohen said.

“If democracy is going to succeed, the Kuomintang [Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT] and the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] must strive for the interests of Taiwan and not for their own immediate partisan interests. Chen’s family is awash in unexplained money and you can’t ignore that. I am nauseated by the amounts involved. But you have to pursue and investigate and prosecute fairly,” he said.

Waldron, who has a long history of links with Taiwan, said: “The way Chen has been treated is not the way a developed and modern country deals with a former head of state. There is an element of the other political side getting its own back.”

He said the KMT had “dirty laundry that is stored in all kinds of closets and hidey-holes around Taiwan,” adding that their lack of zeal in “pulling this dirty laundry out and going through it” was obvious.

The symposium urged Taipei to launch a “truth and reconciliation” commission — similar to the ones used in East Germany and South Africa — to closely examine human rights violations during the Martial Law era.

“It is our right and responsibility to become involved in this,” FAPA president Bob Yang (楊英育) said.

“It will be necessary to deal with complex and difficult issues to move things in the right direction and prevent the repeat of tragedies,” he said.

The symposium was inspired by the completion of the film Formosa Betrayed — the fictionalized story of a political assassination organized by the Taiwan government in the 1980s — which is now being shown at film festivals throughout the US and Canada prior to general release.

“When you see the situation on the mainland [China] you can appreciate the enormity of Taiwan’s achievement,” Cohen said.

“Beijing has no constitutional court and no mechanism for making constitutional rights into reality. But on Taiwan there is this hatred between the KMT and the DPP. It is hard for outsiders to understand. It must be overcome.” he said.

“Both sides must keep in mind the interests of the island and all its people and not the immediate political benefits of this party or that party. We need more reconciliation and to get it we need to air the truth about the past and some of the horrible incidents that we must not forget,” he said.

Waldron said that historical wrongs are not easy to right.

“Once someone is assassinated they are dead. Punishing the guilty may be desirable but the victim remains dead. The best thing is to go forward to build a society where that sort of thing can’t happen again,” he said.

“If you favor democracy for Taiwan, real democracy, you are going to be pushed into a position which is increasingly unwelcome in Beijing. And this is the dilemma we face,” he said.

“China now has real money and real weapons and they can write checks of real size that are very difficult for people to resist. Our democratic values and our beliefs in human liberty and freedom may tug against some of our material values. I hope we will know which way to choose,” he said.

Legal experts question court rulings in Chen’s case
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 3

The guilty verdicts handed down by Taipei District Court Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) on Sept. 11 made Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) the nation’s first former president to be indicted and convicted.

However, legal experts have been quick to speak out about what they see as the many controversial aspects of the verdict.

The court sentenced Chen and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to life in prison and a combined fine of NT$500 million (US$15 million) after ther were found guilty of embezzlement, money laundering, corruption, forgery and other charges.

Chen has denied the charges and says the trial amounts to political persecution by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

The judges wrote in their ruling that Chen, as president, “for selfish reasons … used his power to create wealth while putting aside integrity and loyalty to the country.”

Quoting from ancient scrolls, the judges wrote that as president, Chen should have known that “if one person in power developed a greed for the people’s money, the entire country would devolve into chaos.”

Huang Jui-ming (黃瑞明), chairman of the Judicial Reform Foundation, said that the judges’ quotes from ancient literature evoked a hint of feudalism and the era during which local lords acted as the head of all households under their jurisdiction in an authoritarian manner, as opposed to the modern democratic society that Taiwanese now enjoy.

“[The judges] lectured Chen and his wife like parents scolding children,” Huang said.

Because a president is a public servant, he said, it is up to the people to criticize or praise their elected officials, not the courts, which should operate independently of politics.

Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), secretary general of the Taipei Bar Association, said that the way politics often gets in the way of the judicial process is a big problem in Taiwanese courts.

“Whether the defendant is a president or an ordinary citizen, a court should not make its decisions based on anything other than facts and evidence,” Kao said.

One of the things that highlighted the court’s inability to safeguard the defendant’s rights was its failure to ensure that they have enough time with their attorneys to prepare a proper defense, Kao said.

“[Pre-trial] detention should be a last resort,” he said.

Chen has been held at the Taipei Detention Center since Dec. 30. On Thursday, the Taiwan High Court ruled to extend his detention for three more months, with the term set to expire just before Christmas.

The court rejected the former president’s suggestions of alternative forms of detention, including confiscation of his passport, electronic monitoring, house arrest or restricting his visitors.

In a two-to-one vote, the High Court judges extended Chen’s detention because they said the crimes in question were serious and, as a former president, it would be easier for him to flee than an ordinary citizen.

Though the District Court repeatedly cited the fear that Chen would flee the country, collude with witnesses or destroy evidence, in its detention ruling, it also cited other reasons, such as that the crimes for which he has been accused of are serious crimes and that he has interfered with the judicial process by speaking to the media.

“The judges are worried that if they release Chen, he will speak to the media about his case, but the court has failed to take into account a serious infringement of Chen’s right to his own defense by not giving him enough time to adequately prepare for his trials,” Kao said.

If anyone other than Chen knows whether he has had enough time to prepare for the trials, it would be Tseng Te-rong (曾德榮), his court-appointed attorney at the District Court.

“We did not have enough time to get much of anything done,” Tseng said about his meetings with Chen at the detention center. “So when he appeared in court and was sitting next to me, I took the opportunity to talk to him about the case and quickly jot down notes.”

For Chen’s supporters, who protested and shouted profanities when the District Court repeatedly ruled to keep Chen detained, the High Court’s detention decision destroyed what little hope they had that Chen’s appeal would be successful.

Late on Thursday night, after Chen’s supporters outside the courthouse learned of the decision, they threw eggs and bottles of water to protest the ruling. Hundreds of police officers were mobilized to maintain order. Barricades and barbed wire lined the sidewalks to prevent protesters from entering the building.

Many legal experts are keeping a close watch on the process, including Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Lin Feng-cheng (林峰正).

“Pre-trial detention without due cause is a serious infringement of human rights, which is why it should be used as a last resort. If other methods are available to take the place of detention, they should be taken into consideration,” Lin said.

He criticized the High Court for using the fact that Chen has been charged with “serious offenses” as a reason for detaining him, saying this should not be a factor in deciding whether to detain someone.

He also criticized the District Court’s reasoning.

“The [District] Court’s decision to keep Chen detained because he ‘interfered with the judiciary’ was disappointing to Taiwan’s judicial reform,” Lin said, adding that the legal process was just as important as the final result.

There is no easy answer to whether the appeals court would be viewed as “more just” than the District Court based on its handling of Chen’s corruption trials.

In an opinion piece published in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), attorney Stephen Lee (李勝雄), who had represented Wu until February, wrote that in order to pass down a fair and just ruling, the High Court judges should follow a strict principle of innocent until proven guilty.

“Before the High Court begins the litigation process, [Chen] should be viewed as innocent and therefore, released without bail. If the court finds that [Chen] might flee, then the court should set a bail amount,” he wrote.

To ensure judicial independence from politics and other factors, appeals court judges should not be swayed by media reports, and should base all decisions solely on judgment of evidentiary support, Lee wrote.

Memories of PRC’s founding still vivid for witnesses
　

‘NO COMPARISON’: Many Chinese say that the Cultural Revolution and communist mismanagement of the economy were mere bumps in the road, with some upsides

AFP, BEIJING
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 5
　

Sixty years ago, 19-year-old Geng Zhifeng looked up in elation as revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) stood on the Tiananmen rostrum and proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

It is a moment seared forever into Geng’s memory, and which the nation of 1.3 billion people will celebrate on Thursday with a military parade and carefully choreographed mass performances in Tiananmen Square.

“Everyone was clapping, waving red flags and chanting ‘Long live Chairman Mao, long live Chairman Mao,’” said Geng, 79, making sweeping hand gestures as he described the “grand” scene.

“We had been liberated. How could we not be happy about the founding of the People’s Republic of China?” Geng said, sitting outside the tiny brick home in one of Beijing’s historic neighborhoods where he has lived for 69 years.

China has launched a massive security operation for this week’s National Day festivities amid rising social and ethnic unrest, and it continues to face criticism over its human rights record and lack of democratic politics.

But for those who remember the old days, pre-1949, the holiday remains a cause for celebration, offering insight into how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to command strong support among China’s vast population.

Like countless millions of Chinese before the communist “liberation,” Geng and his family struggled to survive in a traumatized, war-shattered country and life was full of hardship for the low-paid electrician.

His father and younger brother had died of illnesses they could not afford to treat. Food shortages were routine.

Post-1949, he beams, the CCP came through with jobs, a social safety net and medicine for the masses.

“So before liberation our lives were very difficult. But after liberation, there was no comparison,” he said.

Wu Pei, now 81, also was at Tiananmen on Oct. 1, but, as a destitute 21-year-old laborer worried about where his next meal would come from, thoughts of political change were far from his mind.

“At the time, the prices of commodities could change eight times in one day. There was a long waiting line every day when I went to buy rice,” he said.

“We knew that after liberation our lives would be better, but we didn’t think much about the country — just our own lives,” Wu said.

Wu made about 50 yuan (US$7 at today’s rate) a month in 1949. Thanks to the party, his retirement pension today is 2,000 yuan per month — much more than he needs, he boasts.

Like other witnesses, he is full of pride over rising living standards in China and the country’s re-­emergence as a global economic, military and political power.

“The changes have been great, earthshaking,” Wu said.

“We could not have foreseen that things would turn out like this. We only thought it would be better, but never this good,” he said.

For those who saw China on its knees, even dark times such as the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and disastrous communist economic policies are dismissed as bumps in the road that had their upsides.

The Cultural Revolution, for example, was the impetus for Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) economic reforms that restored China’s strength, Wu said.

“[The Cultural Revolution] created huge waste in society and brought much misfortune, but it helped to liberate our thinking,” Wu said.

Not everyone, however, will be celebrating on Thursday.

Dissident Bao Tong (鮑彤) was a 16-year-old budding party cadre in Shanghai in 1949 when the news of Mao’s proclamation was broadcast.

“We were all so thrilled. A light rain came, but everyone kept celebrating very happily,” he said.

Bao later became a close aide to former Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), but was dragged down along with him when he was purged for opposing the use of force on the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

“In 1949, I thought the Chinese people had really been liberated. We were freed, and would not be oppressed anymore. Everyone would be able to speak their minds, and to work, and to eat,” Bao said.

“I was very excited. But in the end, I realized it was not to be,” he said.

End the wait for health reform: Obama

AP, WASHINGTON
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 7

US President Barack Obama on Saturday resumed his push to overhaul the health care system, telling a Congressional Black Caucus conference that there comes a time when “the cup of endurance runs over.”

“We have been waiting for health reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. We’ve been waiting since the days of Harry Truman,” he said in remarks at the caucus foundation’s annual dinner. “We’ve been waiting since Johnson and Nixon and Clinton.”

“We cannot wait any longer,” Obama said.

He spent the past week largely focused on global and economic issues in meetings with world leaders in New York and Pittsburgh.

At the G20 economic summit that wrapped up Friday in Pennsylvania, Obama told a story about an unnamed foreign leader who privately told the president he didn’t understand the at-times contentious debate over changing the health care system.

“He says, ‘We don’t understand it. You’re trying to make sure everybody has health care and they’re putting a Hitler mustache on you. That doesn’t make sense to me,’” Obama said, quoting the world leader he declined to identify.

The reference to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was to signs some people have waved outside of often testy town hall meetings this summer where lawmakers discussed Obama’s health care plan.

In the speech, Obama described his plan as one that would not require people with coverage to change anything but would make health insurance affordable for the millions of people who don’t have any. Republicans dispute those claims.

The Senate Finance Committee is in the process of amending a health care bill introduced by its chairman, Senator Max Baucus.

Before becoming president, Obama was the only senator in the all-Democratic caucus, which now has 42 members. He wasn’t particularly active in the group and isn’t especially close other members.

Animosity toward the president and his policies has bubbled up in recent weeks, most notably with Republican Representative Joe Wilson shouting “You lie!” at Obama during the president’s recent health care speech to Congress.

Democrats from former US president Jimmy Carter on down have blamed the increasingly harsh criticism of Obama on racism. Obama says it’s not racism but an intense debate over the proper role of government.

A double loss for Ma and his party

Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 8

Though today is the 23rd anniversary of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) founding, no one was in the mood to celebrate following the rejection of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) latest appeal. But party morale vastly improved with the DPP victory in Yunlin County’s legislative by-election and the rejection of a Penghu referendum on opening casinos there.

Both votes were politically significant and could indicate that the DPP is leaving the problems of the Chen era behind.

The allegations against Chen have cost the DPP dearly in elections. This has strengthened Ma, who led the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to undisputed power. He, meanwhile, will soon take up the KMT chairmanship. But the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot has ravaged Ma’s reputation. Both parties are now at a crossroads that could lead either to strength or decline.

The Yunlin result gives the DPP its 28th legislative seat and the power to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president. Although this does not mean the DPP could successfully recall him, the change strengthens the legislature’s supervisory power. The government can no longer ignore the public as it pursues an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.

The DPP has always relied on party unity to fight a divided KMT. Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) not only won Yunlin’s legislative seat, he broke Yunlin’s tradition of elections controlled by organized crime, money and factions. The fact that candidates campaigned wearing bulletproof vests and supporters of candidates were arrested buying votes is an insult to the county. Voters used their ballots to show they have had enough.

Liu has the support of Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) of the DPP. The KMT’s hopes of regaining the commissioner’s seat in the year-end elections with the help of Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) and his faction — long influential in Yunlin — are now looking dim.

The KMT had hoped to win in Yunlin and go on to breach the DPP’s “Jhuoshui River defense line” in the December elections. But with the government performing poorly and its local power base split into factions, it stood no chance in Yunlin — and the defeat could signal a threat to the party’s control of areas north of the Jhuoshui River.

In Penghu, the proposal to set up casinos was supported by the KMT-controlled county government. The party used its legislative majority to pass the Isolated Islands Construction Act (離島建設條例), which sought to dodge the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and would have allowed the casino referendum to pass if it won the majority of votes cast rather than the majority of votes of all eligible voters.

The KMT lost its decade-long bid to allow gambling in Penghu — even with local and central government forces acting in concert.

The proposal was depicted as a blank check that would bring wealth to the islands, but the KMT failed to answer concerns about the negative social effects of gambling. In rejecting the proposal, Penghu residents voted for their values. The KMT didn’t just lose a referendum, it lost the moral high ground.

The by-election and referendum results indicate that Ma can no longer count on the Chen case to undermine support for the DPP. To avoid a major loss in the year-end elections, Ma will have to concentrate on winning back public support.

A legitimate government

Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 8

Why should any Taiwanese, including former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), be tried under the laws and Constitution of the Republic of China (ROC), which were imposed upon us without our approval? The only legitimate government is one which has the consent of the people.

The ROC government under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) decades ago asked Taiwanese to join their fight against the Chinese communists and regain control of the “mainland.” Now the KMT has done an about-face and plans to surrender to the communists and make Taiwan part of China — taking the Taiwanese people along as hostages.

Taiwanese cannot be governed this way nor should they be governed by discriminatory rules. They need a functional constitution approved by themselves.

The Democratic Progressive Party administration intended to rewrite the ROC Constitution because many rules are not applicable to Taiwan’s situation, but they were warned by the US executive branch against changing the “status quo.”

Most Taiwanese don’t want to be governed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the US Military Government or the repressive KMT.

Nor do Taiwanese want to live in a limbo in which their rights are not safeguarded because there is no de jure nation to protect their rights in international organizations.

The US government has ignored the rights of Taiwanese for more than half a century, leaving them unrepresented and stateless.

As the KMT is not sincere about change, in order for Taiwan to function normally and according to fair rules, a civil government must replace the one imposed upon Taiwan since the issuance of General Order No. 1 by General Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 2, 1945.

This order must be terminated, giving the Taiwanese the freedom to form their own government and draft their own constitution. A legislative election would preferably be supervised by a qualified international body.

ALISON HSIEH
Athens, Greece

Minister of the Interior Jiang sets an example
　

By Lu I-Ming 呂一銘
Monday, Sep 28, 2009, Page 8

‘Jiang’s suggestion was forceful and impressive. He is an exception in today’s political scene: a member of a new generation of pro-localization elites ... He has no past connections to Ma, nor is he a KMT member.’

The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) stolen assets have long been a subject of public criticism, but the KMT is so impervious to criticism that it has never dealt with the issue.

During his first stint as KMT chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised he would settle the dispute over the party’s ill-gotten assets. More than two years have passed since that pledge and the issue remains unresolved.

With Ma soon to take up the KMT chairmanship again, the public will see whether he pursues his promise. No one in the KMT has mentioned it, but Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), who is not a KMT member, said in an interview that Ma should steel himself to settle the party assets issue. As party members have entrusted him through the election with party matters, this is the best time for Ma to deal with the assets.

Jiang’s suggestion was forceful and impressive. He is an exception in today’s political scene: a member of a new generation of pro-localization elites. He received his doctorate in political science from Yale University and is a professor of political science at National Taiwan University. He has no past connections to Ma, nor is he a KMT member.

During his term as minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, his performance was praised by Ma and former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄).

In particular, Jiang won Ma’s regard when he made clear that he would stand by Liu come what may. In the Cabinet reshuffle, Jiang became interior minister.

What is most interesting is that before Jiang joined the Cabinet, he set up three principles for himself: not to join a political party, not to stump for electoral candidates and not to be persuaded to stay after deciding to leave a position. When he took over as interior minister, he reiterated these principles, with Ma saying he would respect them.

Since Taiwan was ruled by a one-party state for decades, there was no distinction between the state treasury and KMT treasury. Jiang said the KMT’s assets are not a legal problem but a political one and that they should be cut to the minimum required for the party’s basic operations. The rest should be donated to the country or to non-profit organizations, he said.

Jiang has the courage to say what he thinks and his views on the KMT’s assets hold water.

We do not know if Ma will heed this jarring advice, but Jiang has set a good example for other elected officials.

Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News.

“Chinese fire drill” lands Aussie cops in hot water

Monday, Sep 28, 2009,Page 14

Five elite Australian policemen accused of drunkenly running round an unmarked van in the buff at a series of city traffic lights were suspended pending an investigation, officials said.

The men, members of Queensland’s explosives and hostage negotiation squad, will be probed by an ethical standards committee over the incident in Brisbane during a stag party.

“The investigation relates to officers allegedly running naked around a police vehicle whilst stopped at several sets of traffic lights in Brisbane,” police said.

The men, using an unmarked police van to travel from a stag party event, stopped at least four times at traffic lights to run naked around the bus in a prank known as a “Chinese fire drill.” At least one of the officers was on duty.

The scandal comes after a Queensland policeman was suspended for allegedly urinating in public and another over an unauthorized high-speed pursuit.

The sergeant, acting sergeant and three senior constables involved in the latest incident have been removed from operational duties and will “probably” be disciplined, said Commissioner Bob Atkinson.

Criminal charges of willful exposure, public nuisance and unlawful use of a motor vehicle were also possible, he said.

“We have a problem now. We will fix the problem,” he told state radio. “It doesn’t represent the whole organization. It’s a small group of people doing the wrong thing.”

Queensland’s Police Union has called for the highly trained officers not to be sacked, arguing they were on call 24 hours a day, rarely drank alcohol and that the behavior was “completely out of character.”

“You can’t have that role and then say that we can behave like any yobbo,” Atkinson said.

(AFP)