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The Liberty Times
Editorial: KMT uses law as a political weapon
Thirty-four US, Canadian, European and Australian academics and writers,
including former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Nat Bellocchi and
Stephen Yates, former deputy national security affairs assistant to former US
vice president Dick Cheney, published an open letter addressed to President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) last weekend, calling on the government not to use the Control
Yuan and the judicial system for political ends. The letter takes aim at the
government’s investigation into the alleged disappearance of documents from the
presidential office during the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
administration.
The letter questioned the fact that the government announced the investigation
the day before Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced his intention to run for the DPP’s
nomination for next year’s presidential election and said it “certainly gives
the impression of a political ploy intended to discredit the DPP and its
candidates.”
The letter also said: “As observers of political developments in Taiwan for many
decades, we believe that these charges are politically motivated.”
Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), the Presidential Office’s spokesperson, responded to these
suspicions by saying: “The Republic of China [ROC] is a country ruled by law”
and that “the Presidential Office’s consistent approach when discovering that
national documents have been destroyed has been to handle the issue in
accordance with the law.”
Hearing the tone of this statement, one would be excused for thinking that we
have returned to the authoritarian era. When the government at that time
responded to international protests against the persecution of political
dissidents, the defense was always to say that the ROC was “a country ruled by
law” and that the issue would be “handled in accordance with the law,” adding a
“hope that foreigners will respect that.”
This attitude is no different from the attitude of autocratic China. The Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) do not have even
the most basic understanding of how democracy, liberty and human rights are
universal values and not a domestic issue that foreigners are poking their nose
into.
China’s recent arrest of outspoken artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) has become a cause of
concern for many countries. The Chinese government did not confirm the arrest
until the international demands for Ai’s release grew stronger. Only then did
they announce that Ai had been arrested for “economic crimes.” In the eyes of
the Ma administration, that would surely be a matter of acting “in accordance
with the law.” China has for many years been arresting Christians participating
in private religious meetings and persecuting Falun Gong followers. When the
Chinese government claims that it is of course doing so “in accordance with the
law,” it is abandoning China’s constitutional guarantees for religious freedom
as if it were an old shoe thrown by the wayside.
If we think back to the authoritarian era, wasn’t that exactly what the KMT used
to say? All the same problems seem to be recurring in the current government.
The KMT and the CCP are responding to the international community in very
similar ways.
Ma frequently talks about democracy, liberty and human rights, but whether he
really adheres to the view that they represent universal values is a different
matter altogether. We want to stress that concern for democracy, liberty and
human rights is not restricted by national borders. Past international concern
for the authoritarian oppression of Taiwanese was based on these universal
values. The 34 signatories of the open letter to Ma are also basing their
concerns that the government is using the judiciary as a tool for political
persecution on these universal values.
If Ma wants to be remembered as Mr Democracy, he should listen to their concerns
and implement reform if any mistakes have occurred. When this group of
petitioners hears that the government feels foreigners should stay out of
Taiwan’s domestic political situation, they will probably become even more
concerned about political motives behind the hunt for the missing documents.
It has taken the government almost three years to handle the case of the missing
documents “in accordance with the law” — the administrative efficiency is
breathtaking. According to the general procedure for handling official documents
at government institutions — the Presidential Office is no exception — such
documents must go through acceptance, registration, distribution, handling and
filing procedures.
With more than 30,000 documents missing, the Presidential Office should first
require that the department handling documents promptly compile a report on the
handling process and offer a public explanation. Above all, following this
international call for justice, the government can no longer turn a deaf ear.
This international group of 34 academics and writers are not the only people
complaining. More than two years ago, the human rights reports of the US
Congress, Freedom House, The Economist, Amnesty International and Reporters
Without Borders repeatedly showed how democracy, liberty and human rights in
Taiwan were deteriorating under Ma. The experience of these international
observers is confirmed by the experience of people here in Taiwan.
This should increase our worries that the increasingly close relationship
between the Ma administration and the autocratic Chinese government will become
closer still and that the international community once again will begin to see
Taiwan as the authoritarian state it used to be.
As the true masters of Taiwan, we must use the coming legislative and
presidential elections to tell the world that the Ma administration does not
represent mainstream Taiwanese society.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
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