If the President Loved Democracy as Deeply as She Protected Party
United Daily News Editorial, May 7, 2021
The family of Chao Chieh-you, which was presumed to be an organized crime syndicate, involved itself in the gang members controversy. It has seriously bruised the image of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). As chairwoman of the DPP, President Tsai Ing-wen apologized for not implementing the party clause meant to combat organized crime, as stipulated in the party platform, and accused her own party of reemergent factional struggles. President Tsai did not say a word about breakdown in police discipline, instead she hastily ordered the DPP to remedy the damage to its reputation; in contrast, she seemed to be more concerned about her ruling DPP rather than the whole nation, her roles evidently conflicted as a result.
This was the exact reason that President Tsai's apology seemed to be so insincere. From the chaotic situation in Taipei’s Songshan District to that in Beitou District, what people saw was a degraded police discipline, hook-up between the organized crime syndicates and the police, and civilians who have been intimidated, among others. As a result, democracy and the rule of law were tarnished simultaneously. However, as the DPP’s chairwoman, President Tsai conveniently chose to apologize for "non-eradication of the organized crime" issue at the DPP Standing Committee. She sought to evade the issue rather than face it. She scolded the factions in the DPP for "the old problem of power struggles," as if it had nothing to do with her; in fact, she has been the coordinator and distributor of the DPP's factional interests. The Taipei branch of the DPP has recruited gang members, included some of them as key players under the umbrella of "pro-Tsai faction" in the DPP and made one of them as Presidential National Policy, hasn’t it?
Recently, there have been rumors of gang members joining the DPP, a theory which has actually existed for a rather long time. You could see the arrogance of the gang members who have no regard for law and order. For example, a group of about 10 gang members stormed the Songshan Precinct in April. However, the police in question covered up the ins and outs of the said intrusion. Furthermore, Chao, whose father was convener of the review committee of the DPP’s Taipei branch, was notorious for his rampage through Beitou, for his approaches to find an easy job in alternative military service and for his later desertion from it at will. If it were not for the malfunction of the state apparatus and the deliberate cover-up by party machines and politicians, how could things have gone so bad?
In the end, all these chaotic situations reflected the multiple failures of democracy, rule of law, and societal values in Taiwan. If police discipline has not gradually atrophied, why would gang members dare to storm into police sub-station and vandalize them, while police officers attempted to destroy the evidence and get away with it? The police misconception of public power was due to some ass kissers at the top. In addition, those highest echelons only looked at political colors rather than distinguished right from wrong, and even ganged up across ministries.
In short, the belief that gang members would parasitize political parties has certainly caused administrative deviations and a breakdown of law and order. But what is more serious is that government top brass has not clarified the division between party and government, and have allowed the state apparatus to monopolize resources to serve their own political party rather than the general public. In the past few years, people have been witnessing the regression of Taiwan's democracy: state offices have been used to reward party cronies, resources have been directed to pro-DPP consortia, freedom of speech of all kinds has been mugged, independent regulatory agencies have been nurtured to persecute political enemies, and laws and policies have been tailor-made according to the needs and convenience of those in power. Each of these retrogressions in democracy and the rule of law is much more serious than the recruitment of gang members into the party. Has President Tsai taken the said retrogressions seriously?
The police discipline has deteriorated to such an extent, but President Tsai chose to apologize for the issue of gang members. The priority deep in her mind is still "party before country". If President Tsai's intention to protect democracy is as deep as her protection of factions, will she turn a blind eye to the internal struggle between Premier Su Tseng-chang, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung and Director-General of Chen Jia-chin of the National Police Administration?