Scuffles broke out among lawmakers in the Legislature on Thursday as the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pushed forward an amendment that seeks to retrospectively acquit former President Chen Shui-bian (???) of corruption charges for misusing a state affairs fund when in office.
The amendment to Article 99-1 of the Accounting Act was moved by a vote out of the Legislature’s Finance Committee to the cross-party negotiation stage, which will take up to one month, before the DPP can put it to a floor vote for a second and third reading.
DPP lawmakers waited outside the conference room where the meeting was held from 8 p.m. Wednesday, in an effort to secure the podium and ensure proceedings went ahead as scheduled. However, main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers arrived at 5 a.m. before the doors to the chamber were opened at 6:30 a.m.
When the doors opened, lawmakers pushed and shoved each other as they rushed to the podium, with two female lawmakers falling to the ground as they wrestled each other and another being pulled down as she tried to climb onto the podium.
KMT lawmakers also threw fake banknotes and Sogo Department Store gift vouchers in the air, suggesting that DPP lawmakers also profited from the bribes Chen received.
Amid the melee, Chairman of the Legislature’s Finance Committee Shen Fa-hui (???), of the DPP, called a roll-call vote that pushed the amendment out of committee, after a KMT motion to adjourn the meeting failed to pass.
Should the amendment pass, it could retrospectively absolve him of both civil and criminal liability for the alleged misuse of the fund when he was president from 2000-2008. Chen was first indicted in the case in 2008, which is currently in its second retrial at the Taiwan High Court.
The case is one of multiple corruption scandals Chen, 71, became embroiled in after leaving office. He was given a total of about 20 years in jail in 2010 for accepting bribes in a land deal and other cases.
The former president was incarcerated as a result but was released on medical parole in 2015.
Article 99-1 of the Accounting Act currently states that actions related to the filing, handling, reimbursement and use of all special allowance funds before Dec. 31, 2006 are exempt from punishment.
The amendment proposed by DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (???) seeks to expand the exemption granted under Article 99-1 to include the use of discretionary funds given by all executive agencies, including the state affairs funds available to the president.
Tsai said Article 99-1 was introduced by the KMT in 2011 when it held a majority in the Legislature, following Taipei District Court’s judgment in 2007 that former President Ma Ying-jeou (???) was not guilty of taking half a monthly special allowance allocated to him as mayor of Taipei from 1998-2006 for personal use.
“The KMT did not include the state affairs fund in that article to humiliate Chen,” Tsai told reporters.
Given that the state affairs fund and special allowance funds are “of the same nature,” it is perfectly reasonable to decriminalize the use of the state affairs fund, DPP caucus whip Ke Chien-ming (???) said.
KMT caucus whip Tseng Ming-chung (???) said prosecutors determined there were irregularities in Chen’s handling of the state affairs fund and the amendment pushed by the DPP “serves the sole purpose of exonerating Chen in the state affairs fund case.”
In the indictment in 2008, prosecutors accused Chen of misusing a total of NT$104 million (US$3.56 million) from the state affairs fund for personal gain.
Chen called a press conference on April 7 to proclaim his innocence on the charge, despite the terms of his medical parole specifically forbidding him from participating in politics.
At that event, Chen detailed evidence showing 21 payments made from the state affairs fund totaling NT$133 million, far exceeded the NT$104 million he is accused of misusing during his presidency.
Chen said the 21 payments were used to promote confidential diplomatic missions, including paying an American lobbying firm, supporting pro-Taiwan democracy parades, and sponsoring democratic activists and groups, among others.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel