Hung Urges Tsai to Declare Stance on Death Penalty

 Hung Urges Tsai to Declare Stance on Death Penalty

Source: United Daily News

June 3, 2015

Following the brutal schoolyard killing of an 8-year-old girl at Wenhua Elementary School (文化國小) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) last Friday, the controversy over whether the nation’s death penalty should be abolished flared up once again. The DPP’s Chairperson and 2016 Presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in Chicago during her US tour that the abolition of capital punishment would require a social consensus, comprehensive complementary measures over a transition period, and a cautious attitude. Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who is seeking KMT’s nomination in the 2016 Presidential Election, asked Tsai: “Do you support the abolition of the death penalty? You must make your position clear.”

Tsai previously criticized the Taiwan government for executing the death-row convicts. She declared then that the abolition of the death penalty was a universal goal and that to achieve this goal, there must be a process. Tsai also criticized that implementing the death penalty would confuse and perplex society. However, in Tsai’s remarks in the US, she neither mentioned the abolition of the death penalty as a universal goal nor criticized the death penalty for confusing and perplexing society. Her remarks in the US did not conform to her previous statements that the abolition of the death penalty was a universal goal.

Hung denounced Tsai for flip-flopping and called on her to clearly state her position. Hung also called on Tsai not to talk about universal values and human rights and just state clearly “whether she supports the abolition of the death penalty.” Hung asked, “Does she know the ferocity of the murderer? Does she feel the society’s indignation? Does she feel the grief and pain of the victim’s family?” Hung thus urged Tsai to stop resorting to empty rhetoric and state her stance clearly. 

Attachment : none