Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Hou You-yi/Facebook
ONE OF KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi’s campaign promises is to revive the Special Investigation Division (SID or 最高法院檢察署特別偵查組) of the Supreme Prosecutors Office. This has not been widely discussed, but could do with examination as an issue.
The body was established under Chen Shui-bian to investigate corruption and political wrongdoing but dissolved under the Tsai administration. It may not be surprising to see why the SID was dissolved when some of the more notable cases that the SID was involved in touched on.
Among the notable cases that the SID has been involved in include the corruption charges against Chen himself, as well as the wiretapping of Legislative Yuan majority speaker Wang Jinpyng in the course of the “September Political Struggle”. The “September Political Struggle,” which was one of the major political events that led up to the eruption of the 2014 Sunflower Movement, in that this was read as an attempt by then-president Ma Ying-jeou to purge political opponents within his own party.
Ma was seen as the leader of the “Mainlander” faction of the KMT, who viewed Wang Jinpyng’s comparatively more pro-localization faction of the party with suspicion, as harboring secret ambitions to advocate for Taiwanese sovereignty in a manner not unlike former president Lee Teng-hui. Lee was, of course, a member of the KMT, but harbored pro-independence views secretly and covertly rose to the top of the party to become Taiwan’s president as Chiang Ching-kuo’s successor. Wang’s wiretapping on allegations of colluding with DPP minority whip Ker Chien-ming in secret backroom deal-making provoked public anger with the view that this was the KMT being willing to wiretap lawmakers as a means of politically undermining them.
That being said, under the Tsai administration, the SID was also involved in investigating KMT legislator Alex Tsai on embezzlement charges pertaining to the sale of Central Pictures Corporation (CPC). The CPC was among a number of KMT assets that the party divested when Ma was chair of the party, though with Tsai’s purchase of the CPC leading a group of investors that included Terry Gou’s younger brother, among others, this would be transferring the company to a group of individuals with close ties to the party. Tsai was accused of embezzling money from the sale.
KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi. Photo credit: Hou You-yi/Facebook
Hou has suggested many times in campaigning that issues regarding organized crime and political corruption are growing worse in Taiwan. In calling for the revival of the SID, Hou would be drawing on his history as a police officer, in line with broader calls in campaigning to clean up Taiwanese society.
At the same time, it has become increasingly common for the KMT to allege that the DPP is politically targeting it. It is claimed this takes place through the Transitional Justice Commission intended to take action on crimes committed during the authoritarian period, through the media regulatory actions of the National Communication Commission aimed at curbing Chinese influence operations, and the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee to take action on assets of the KMT retained from property seizures during the authoritarian period.
Likewise, it has become increasingly common for the KMT to allege corruption on the part of the Tsai administration as responsible for growing issues of fraud in Taiwan, or policy choices such as the Tsai administration’s attempts to promote green energy or decision to bank on the development of domestically-produced vaccine Medigen. It is claimed that the Tsai administration only seeks to promote renewable forms of energy because of DPP politicians’ investments in green energy companies and pushed for Medigen’s development because of its investment in the company.
This raises the possibility that Hou You-yi and the KMT would seek to take legal actions against DPP officials of the Tsai administration in office through the SID, seeing this as equivalent to the DPP’s actions. Though the KMT has sometimes framed this as a “Green Terror” worse than the “White Terror” as part of its increasingly hyperbolic political rhetoric in past years, it is not as though the Tsai administration has murdered thousands of dissidents–and it is not as though significant arrests were carried out by the Tsai administration either. Yet with the KMT embracing increasingly polarized rhetoric against the DPP and with individuals who used the SID to politically target opponents such as Ma Ying-jeou playing important leadership roles in the party at present, this is not inconceivable.
Indeed, with KMT vice presidential candidate Jaw Shaw-kong alleging that a CNN report on Mayday being pressured by Chinese authorities was concocted by the DPP in collusion with international media and promising to legally investigate this if elected, it is possible the SID could even be used to target international media operating in Taiwan. This is to be seen.