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Democratic Progressive Get together (DPP) and Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers brawled within the Taiwanese legislature earlier this week over modifications to Article 99-1 of the Accounting Act proposed by the DPP. What provoked ire was that the modifications could clear former President Chen Shui-bian of corruption prices relating to the usage of particular expense funds when he was president.
Chen, who served as president from 2000 to 2008, was the primary DPP president in Taiwanese historical past. Chen rose to prominence as a protection lawyer for the Kaohsiung Eight, who had been political dissidents affiliated with Formosa Journal who had been arrested by the KMT for an illustration to mark Worldwide Human Rights Day in 1979. The incident is remembered as one of many key moments in Taiwan’s democratization, with many members of the Kaohsiung Eight later occurring to be founding members of the DPP in 1986.
The late Chen presidency, nonetheless, was marked by scandal. Aside from allegations that Chen had used particular expense funds (additionally known as the “state affairs fund”) for private achieve, Chen was accused of bribery over the appointment of the chair of the Taipei Monetary Heart Company and a land deal in Longtan, Taoyuan. Consequently, there have been widespread protests in opposition to Chen, which included not solely demonstrations organized by the KMT, however former allies turning on him. Even so, Chen had his defenders, who seen the fees in opposition to him as political retaliation by the KMT in opposition to Taiwan’s first non-KMT president.
With corruption prices in opposition to Chen damaging the fame of the DPP as a complete, Chen’s successor as president was Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, which returned to energy. After leaving workplace, Chen was initially sentenced to life imprisonment, however the sentence was diminished to 19 years.
In January 2015, Chen was launched on medical parole on the situation that he chorus from making political statements or appearances. Chen has tried to push again in opposition to this restriction, nonetheless, notably as soon as the Tsai administration took energy in 2016 because the second DPP presidential administration. Moreover working a Fb web page that provided political commentary underneath the title of his deceased pet canine, Chen later began a radio present that he claimed would keep away from political subjects.
The costs of misuse of presidency funds are nonetheless a sticking level for Chen, with Chen accused of misusing 104 million New Taiwan {dollars} for his personal achieve. In April of this 12 months, Chen held a press convention, displaying proof that he claimed confirmed that 21 funds had been made for NT$133 million, and these funds had been used for diplomatic functions, fairly than private achieve. The press convention led to a warning from jail authorities, although the percentages of Chen being put again into jail underneath Tsai are low. Chen responded that the authorized case relating to these funds was underneath its second retrial on the Taiwan Excessive Court docket.
Curiously, Article 99-1 of the Accounting Act was initially promulgated by the KMT in 2011, clearing officers of crimes relating to the misuse of particular funds earlier than December 31, 2006. On the time, the modifications had been criticized as an try and clear then-president Ma of prices relating to the usage of such funds relationship from his interval as Taipei mayor from 2000 to 2008, in addition to to clear the information of different KMT legislators accused of corruption, comparable to then-legislator Yen Ching-piao, who’s broadly identified for organized crime ties.
However, Article 99-1 of the Accounting Act excluded the president within the purview of officers cleared of misuse, with the pan-Inexperienced camp taking the view that this was to keep away from the modifications exonerating Chen however not having sufficient legislators in workplace to push for this. It was solely in 2016 that the DPP held absolutely the majority within the legislature for the primary time, as additionally the primary time {that a} non-KMT occasion held the bulk.
For its half, the DPP has asserted that particular expense funds underneath the president had been the identical as for different officers underneath the purview of Article 99-1 of the Accounting Act, which the KMT has denied. The amendments handed by 57 in assist in opposition to 32 in opposition, with zero abstentions.
With the intention to attempt to stop the modifications from passing, the KMT occupied the rostrum of the legislature, and later threw bottles and pretend cash at DPP legislators, in order to allege corruption. A stray water bottle broken the Solar Yat-sen portrait behind the rostrum and three DPP legislators had been later discovered to be COVID-positive, resulting in hypothesis as as to whether members of the pan-Blue camp who had been tussling with them might be in danger from COVID.
Chen has not been cleared of all prices, as he nonetheless faces bribery prices. However, even when the fees in opposition to Chen led to widespread protest over a decade, it’s to be questioned whether or not the DPP’s current actions provoke broader outrage from the general public, as the general public could also be centered on COVID-19 at current. Certainly, the KMT’s framing of the difficulty was indicative, in that the KMT didn’t focus purely on the difficulty of corruption however framed the DPP as extra involved with getting Chen off the hook than passing legal guidelines to stop youngster deaths from COVID-19.
However even though the Tsai administration is more and more taking warmth for the rising variety of COVID circumstances in Taiwan, the KMT’s general political place should still be weak. However, third events comparable to pan-Inexperienced NPP and pan-Blue TPP have each been crucial of the DPP’s actions.
Chen, who coincidentally was reported to be COVID-positive the next day, has said that he welcomed the amendments and the retrospective acquittal they entail. He in contrast the acquittal to being cleared of accusations from the KMT through the authoritarian interval. His son, DPP Kaohsiung metropolis councilor Chen Chih-chung, was additionally among the many voices that welcomed the modifications to the legislation.
The DPP could have its eyes on bettering relations with the deep Inexperienced wing of the occasion, which nonetheless holds Chen in optimistic regard. Tsai beforehand confronted a revolt from the deep Greens within the lead-up to the 2020 presidential elections, with deep Greens seeing Tsai as having not executed sufficient to advocate for Taiwanese independence. Such deep Greens additionally disapproved of Tsai’s legalization of homosexual marriage and generally voiced dissatisfaction with having a feminine president.
Tsai’s present vice chairman, William Lai, was favored by the deep Greens to switch Tsai because the DPP’s 2020 presidential candidate. Although Tsai was profitable in heading off Lai’s problem and later named him vice chairman, Lai is seen as a contender for the DPP’s 2024 presidential nomination, and the deep Greens nonetheless appear to view him in a optimistic mild. Whereas Tsai herself has thus far shrugged off calls from deep Greens to pardon Chen, actions by the DPP legislative caucus could also be aimed toward extending an olive department to the deep Greens, to consolidate the pan-Inexperienced camp forward of upcoming elections.
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