Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng, right, and former Taipei Awakening Foundation director-general Yang Fang-wan speak during an interview in Taipei on Jan. 29.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

The Control Yuan is to investigate a skit staged by prosecutors in 2009 satirizing former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), a performance that has raised doubts about the credibility of the nation’s judicial system, Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) said yesterday.

As Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben said: “The real problem, the central mystery of politics is not sovereignty, but government; it is not God, but the angel; it is not the king, but ministry; it is not the law, but the police.”

Protests are common in Taiwan and police’s handling of such activities often draws attention. This was the case during the Sunflower movement in 2014, a protest during the opening ceremony of the Taipei Universiade last year, and the arrest of protesters and lawyers during a march in December last year against the amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), who were forced into police cars and “dropped off” at random locations.