Lamentable that Tsai Ying-wen Would Use Constitutional Reform to Block Chen Shui-bian’s Pardon

  Lamentable that Tsai Ying-wen Would Use Constitutional Reform to Block Chen Shui-bian’s Pardon

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 25, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

The draft resolution to “pardon Chen Shui-bian,” which gained a high degree of momentum as it had won massive co-sponsorships by DPP party delegates to the national party congress, mounted pressure on Tsai Ing-wen; who knew, with much thunder, but little rain, it was ruled by President Tsai to be referred to the Central Executive Committee for a lack of quorum at the time of the introduction of the draft resolution, ending without fanfare. To the surprise of many, in order to shift the focus of the big drama of “pardoning Chen Shui-bian,” Tsai Ying-wen dropped a bombshell of "constitutional reform," claiming to reform the constitution in order to make powers commensurate with responsibilities, and erect a constitutional government system with a clear-cut “division of labor.” Using the issue of constitutional reform to block the pressure for pardoning Chen Shui-bian may be likened to "using a thousand pounds to move four ounces"; it is indeed lamentable!

Whether to pardon Chen Shui-bian or not, there should be factors on many facets, including legal, political, humanitarian, and social reconciliations that must be considered. Among them, on the question of the “humanitarian facet,” the Ma government employed medical parole to handle it with magnanimity, an issue which has, in fact, been appropriately resolved. What Tsai Ying-wen has to handle is to make considerations on the political facet on the premise of conforming to the rule of law. The question is, Tsai Ing-wen, at the end, used a risky gambit of constitutional reform to counter the pressure for pardoning Chen Shui-bian, attempting to use the highest level of constitutional issues to shift the attention and concern vis-à-vis pardoning Chen Shui-bian on the part of the DPP and society. This kind of thinking is more that shrewd and more than unimaginable. Just ponder, leaving aside the issues on the legal and political facets and not handling it, Tsai Ing-wen directly jumped to the  level of the Constitution; isn’t this too "farfetched"?

When Tsai Ing-wen chose to toss out the issue of constitutional reform at the national party congress, first of all, she took a mistaken first step. Constitutional reform must seek a consensus among all people; Tsai Ying-wen, however, proposed it within the party, making it a partisan calculation, not knowing it downgraded the meaning of constitutional reform. Secondly, to employ the issue of constitutional reform to block the pardoning of Chen Shui-bian lacks correlation on the level of the matter, and also belittles the seriousness of the constitutional reform project. Thirdly, under the atmospherics of Taiwan’s domestic confrontation, to talk about constitutional reform, we are afraid, it would be difficult to galvanize a unanimous consensus; the end result would push society to an abyss of further divisions. Fourthly, since President Tsai came to office, she has, on her own, expanded powers and trampled the rule of law in numerous cases; can a leader who exceeds her powers be appropriate to shepard constitutional reform?

The biggest problem since Tsai Ing-wen came to office is long on bragging, but short on down-to-earth accomplishments. She introduced the idea of constitutional reform to block the pardon of Chen Shui-bian; the most satirical point is Tsai Ing-wen may have blocked the action of co-sponsorship for pardoning Chen Shui-bian, but Chen Shui-bian’s comment in response is: "Constitutional reform is to seek the political interests of one party.” This is veritably on the target!

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