Prison no barrier to Taiwan's
Chen By Jens Kastner
TAIPEI - Taiwan's ex-president Chen
Shui-bian is emerging as a political oracle as his
opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
selects a presidential candidate for 2012
elections, though he's currently banged up in
Taipei Prison serving 18 years for corruption
charges.
From his prison cell, the former
leader is busy making recommendations and
predictions for Taiwanese politics, mostly for his
old party, the DPP. While Chen's addressing of a
wide audience from behind prison walls reeks of
preferential treatment - it is not. Under
Taiwanese law, prisoner Chen is doing nothing that
other inmates can't do.
Chen has already
published two books since his detention in late
2008, and at one stage planned
to release a CD. He has made public political
statements on numerous occasions: most recently,
he criticized the DPP for phasing out a party
member vote for primaries in favor of telephone
polls, warned that DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen and
former premier Su Tseng-chang are too at odds to
form a presidential ticket in 2012, and stated
that Tsai had the best chances for 2012.
He also blasted President Ma Ying-jeou of
the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) over a major
diplomatic row with the Philippines, encouraged
former vice president Annette Lu to run in 2012
and discussed with her the possibility of him
being freed if the DPP won next year's elections.
From his cell, Chen also revealed to a local
magazine that the sole purpose of him staying
alive was to see what would become of Ma.
Given that Chen enjoys enough media
exposure to make quite a few Taiwanese politicians
envious, one can be forgiven for thinking that
prisoner No1020 is being handled with kid gloves.
But this island is not Indonesia or the
Philippines, where jailed officials are known for
throwing parties behind bars or taking secret
leisure trips wearing a wig. Taiwan's correctional
facilities stick to the rule of law, and so must
celebrity prisoner Chen.
Experts
interviewed by Asia Times Online shed light on how
Chen, despite supposedly being cut off from social
life, regularly manages to add his two cents,
remaining a player in Taiwan politics.
"It's called 'special interviews'; this is
what prisons usually grant to Taiwanese lawmakers
demanding to see a particular inmate," said Huang
Hua-hsi, a Taiwanese legislative assistant. This
is the procedural loophole DPP legislators take
advantage of when visiting Chen, afterwards
conveying his remarks to the island's media
outlets.
As for how the former president
keeps himself updated on political events, Huang
said Chen had no special rights. "In terms of
access to newspapers, TV, Internet or telephone, I
think the same standards apply to Chen as to any
other prisoner."
Hwang Jau-yuan, professor
at Taipei's National Taiwan University's College
of Law, gives a more detailed picture of the
conditions of Chen's detention. "Reading books is
OK, but they are subject to scrutiny and censored
by the prison administration ... Prisoners can
read newspapers, though the choice might be
limited to one or two." Hwang says inmates can
watch TV in a common room and that Chen's previous
cell-mate had a small portable TV which he shared.
According to Taiwan's reasonably liberal
Prison Act, inmates are permitted to own paper,
pens and ink. An inmate can have visits and
correspond by mail with spouses, lineal relatives,
collateral relatives within the second degree of
kinship and relatives by marriage within third
degree of kinship.
However, crucial to
Chen's political activities, Article 62 stipulates
that when there are specific reasons - and this
apparently includes visiting lawmakers - this rule
is subject to change as long as visits do not
interfere with the principles of the prison.
Visitation under surveillance in the visitation
room is allowed once a week, limited to 30
minutes, but also here the option remains that
frequency and time can be increased or extended if
deemed necessary.
Prisons officials are in
charge of inspecting inmates' correspondence.
Apart from the books Chen, like other inmates, can
pick for himself, prisoners can gain access to
reading material via group instructions. These
literalistic treats are, however, of rather
questionable entertainment value. It's hard to
imagine Chen making use of the teaching philosophy
of Republic of China founder Sun Yat-Sen, let
alone the quotes of the 20-something historical
figures who served as presidents of the Republic
of China before Chen himself.
Another
clause in the prison law that is significant for
Chen is Article 81, which stipulates that "essays
written by a prisoner, whose subject is
appropriate and does not offend the discipline and
reputation of the prison, shall be permitted to be
published in newspapers or magazines".
Professor Hwang recalls that the vague
wording "whose subject is appropriate" employed in
the Prison Act has in the past got Chen into
trouble.
"In some cases, particularly
during a campaign period before elections, he was
'punished' for his comments. The prison
administration banned him for receiving family
members and friends for a certain period of time,
say, a week", says Hwang.
Hwang says Chen
not only doesn't receive preferential treatment,
but is actually treated stricter than other
inmates.
"Considering his status, the
prison administration will usually prevent him
from meeting other ordinary prisoners. In this
sense, his interactions with other prisoners could
be much limited and more restrictive."
When former vice president Annette Lu
visited Chen on March 9, the two discussed Lu's
bid for the presidency and a possible pardon for
Chen if Taiwan's next president came from the DPP.
Former DPP legislator Tsai Chi-fang, who
met Chen shortly after Lu, reportedly told the
jailed ex-president that he needed to "hold on a
bit longer," and, referring to a potential pardon
by a future DPP administration, he assured Chen
that his release was forthcoming. This assessment,
however, seems to have been very wishful thinking
indeed.
This is because Annette Lu - by
far the DPP heavyweight closest to Chen - has
since pulled out of the DPP race, leaving it
between chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, former premier
Su Tseng-chang and former DPP chairperson Hsu
Hsin-liang. Hsu has long been Chen's opponent in
the DPP.
Legislative assistant Huang
explains why neither Tsai Ing-wen nor Su
Tseng-chang, let alone Ma, is likely to free Chen.
He says that as most Taiwanese believe that Chen
is guilty, and only a very few believe that he was
framed by the KMT, freeing Chen holds no political
benefits for whoever takes office in 2012.
"KMT voters simply don't want to hear
anymore of Chen Shui-bian, so President Ma won't
grant him a pardon," he predicts. "As Tsai mainly
targets political centrists and young voters, it's
unlikely that she would risk putting off her voter
base for the sake of freeing Chen."
According to Huang, about the only
scenario left under which Chen could receive a
presidential pardon would be a victory for Su
Tseng-chang. But this seems rather remote, as it's
implausible that on the island there are more
staunch supporters of Taiwanese independence like
Chen Shui-bian taking to the poll booths than
centrists and swing voters.
"Su will
calculate how many votes can be won from the
deep-green [staunch independence supporters], and
how many can be lost annoying the centrists", said
Huang.
Jens Kastner is a
Taipei-based journalist.
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2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
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