Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

A sergeant at arms wouldn’t help

Taipei Times

Images of brawling legislators are a common sight in Taiwan — and this embarrassment appears unlikely to end any time soon. Rational negotiation and compromise are rare in Taiwanese politics.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金浦聰) has suggested that the legislature follow the example of other countries and employ a sergeant at arms in the legislature to maintain order by commanding guards when things get out of hand.

KMT asserts ownership of Taiwan prosecutors

Taiwan News Editorial

The impeachment by the Control Yuan of Supreme Public Prosecutor Chen Tsung-ming Tuesday marks the reassertion of ownership over Taiwan's prosecutors by the President Ma Ying-jeou's ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and has grave implications for the defense of judicial independence and basic human rights for all Taiwan citizens.

On Tuesday, the Control Yuan voted by an eight to three margin to impeach the chief public prosecutor and file an injunction to force his resignation three years before his fixed term was scheduled to end only a week after a similar vote failed for lack of evidence.

Taiwan and the future in the U.S.-Japan alliance

Taiwan News Editorial

On January 19, 1960, the U.S. and Japan signed a far reaching "U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security" over the intense opposition of opposition lawmakers and violent demonstrations by leftist labor and student organizations.

Surely, few of the participants in those events believed that the treaty would continue to exist a half century later.

An impeachment to dismember

Taipei Times Editorial

The impeachment of State Public Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明), which triggered a mass resignation of 14 of his prosecutorial appointees, was first and foremost a political act.

Chen resigned shortly after the Control Yuan’s decision was handed down on Tuesday. Nominated by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Chen Tsung-ming is the first top prosecutor to suffer this fate.

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