Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Facing another round of criticism by academics over the weekend about fears of abuse of power, the Presidential Office again responded by maintaining that Taiwan was a country of law and order, and that the authorities were only following the law.

The matter in question, which involves allegations that 17 senior officials in former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration failed to return as many as 36,000 documents — several of them classified — seemed untoward from the beginning, coming as it did almost three years after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) return to power and as the campaign for next year’s presidential election began to shift into gear.

Most people in Taiwan have short memories. For example, the Control Yuan is Taiwan's watchdog agency. It is supposed to be free of political and party bias and influence. The members serve six year terms. They are appointed by the President and approved by the Legislative Yuan. Herein lies the conflict. From February 2005 the KMT controlled Legislative Yuan refused to approve any nominees of DPP President Chen Shui-bian to the Control Yuan. In 2005 Ma Ying-jeou became Chairman of the KMT and they continued this policy on up to 2008 when Ma became president and could make the nominees himself and have them rubber-stamped by the KMT controlled Legislative Yuan. For three years 2005 to 2008, the country suffered with a minimalist Control Yuan as members terms expired and no replacements were made. The KMT would rather that Taiwan have no governmental watch dog if it could not be dominated by "their people." Now the KMT appointed Control Yuan is being used by the president to harass the opposition. It is things like this that have prompted another letter by the scholars and writers below.