Damned if he does...
With the arrest of First Son-in-law 趙建銘 Chao Chien-ming dogging him, current ROC president 陳水扁 Chen Shui-Bian has ‘ceded his powers’ to Premier 蘇貞昌 Su Tseng-chang. Chen’s made big deal out of giving up his powers - powers that he doesn’t even have. Poor A-bien is going to go hide in a corner of the Presidential Building feel sorry for himself. Plus he’s going to self-criticize some more (that’s worked so well in the past in combatting corruption). No word yet on how things wll be different this time.
As pointed out by KMT chairman 馬英九 Ma Ying-jeou, Chen doesn’t even have these powers. Under the ROC constitution, the president is concerned with external and international affairs-the premier is in charge of domestic affairs. Chen has basically made a big deal of giving up nothing, or at worst admitted to stepping out of his constitutional boundaries.
So then why go through the charade? While there may yet be some hope for the DPP mending its ways, this is classic Chen - deny, delay, distract. The China Post points out that Chen has tried a similar tactic before to stave off an impeachment in 2000. Impeachment isn’t what Chen is worried about-it’s a largely symbolic measure that even Ma is lukewarm about, despite the street protests this weekend.
What Chen really needs is for the investigations to stop before they hit something really important. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and Chen has no doubt used his position to his financial advantage in as yet unknown ways. The ‘farmer’s son’ from ‘humble beginnings’ has probably developed a taste for the finer things in life, and has no desire to return to actually live with the common rabble, despite their loyalty to him. No, Chen will first try to delay with meaningless platitudes, then stir up more controversy to distract, and finally, if push comes to shove, likely resign and run away to protect his gains.
As pointed out by KMT chairman 馬英九 Ma Ying-jeou, Chen doesn’t even have these powers. Under the ROC constitution, the president is concerned with external and international affairs-the premier is in charge of domestic affairs. Chen has basically made a big deal of giving up nothing, or at worst admitted to stepping out of his constitutional boundaries.
So then why go through the charade? While there may yet be some hope for the DPP mending its ways, this is classic Chen - deny, delay, distract. The China Post points out that Chen has tried a similar tactic before to stave off an impeachment in 2000. Impeachment isn’t what Chen is worried about-it’s a largely symbolic measure that even Ma is lukewarm about, despite the street protests this weekend.
What Chen really needs is for the investigations to stop before they hit something really important. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and Chen has no doubt used his position to his financial advantage in as yet unknown ways. The ‘farmer’s son’ from ‘humble beginnings’ has probably developed a taste for the finer things in life, and has no desire to return to actually live with the common rabble, despite their loyalty to him. No, Chen will first try to delay with meaningless platitudes, then stir up more controversy to distract, and finally, if push comes to shove, likely resign and run away to protect his gains.
posted by Taiwan's Other Side at 10:39 PM
2 Comments:
Does Taiwan have a policy like the US, where higher office officials have to put their money and investments in a blind trust?
The ROC does have a trust policy, but it has some holes in it, as demonstrated by the First Lady recently.
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