Of Corruption, Controversy and Injustice in Taiwan's Judiciary

  If you talk to any Taiwanese, most will acknowledge either directly or indirectly that the courts in Taiwan are full of corruption, highly questionable verdicts and injustice. Endless examples of the guilty who are set free or given reduced sentences due to their power, influence, money or connections to the right people in the judiciary. More than a few instances of the innocent who are unjustly found guilty because their accusers possess the same aforementioned advantages.

  Here are some articles from the local press about the most recent spate of corruption scandals (involving High Court judges, prosecutors, even lawyers), controversial verdicts and injustice in the Ma government's version of a "full-fledged democracy", how to clean up corruption, and a paragon of the "rule of law:"

High Court judge scandal underlines judicial branch flaws 
Prosecution of judges also chance for change 
Lady Justice may be truly blind in Taiwan 
Judges incur fury over pedophile sentencing
Stupidity in the judiciary must also be stamped out 
Controversial cases raise questions on Supreme Court 
Prosecutors indict High Court judges 

More Obstacles: 'Dinosaurs', Corruption and Taiwan's Weak Judicial Reform

  Even for the average Taiwanese, seeking redress through Taiwan's courts is a very daunting experience. For foreigners, it is all but "mission impossible" to achieve justice whether the plaintiff or defendant.

  In addition to the obstacles I've already pointed out in my own particular case, the inadequate state of Taiwan's judiciary due to a plethora of what are referred to locally as "dinosaur" judges, corruption from the top court down, and long-running procrastination on and stymieing of judicial reform are also serious impediments to justice here.

  Here is sampling of what the local press has been reporting in recent months about the Taiwan government's half-hearted and ineffective attempts at judicial reform:

Draft judges' law is still a 'dinosaur
Draft for anti-corruption bureau fails, for now
Justice system mustn't isolate itself: Ma
Ma offers support for judicial reform
Ma realizes importance of judicial reform

Trying To Halt Years of Injustice

  Here is a lengthy complaint I sent to Taiwan's Judicial Yuan in exasperation after enduring repeated indifference, bias, incompetence and just plain injustice for more than 3 years since this nightmare began. The nursing university, the Ministry of Education, the Taipei District Court...all of them doing their utmost to hinder and frustrate my efforts for the truth and vindication. 

  In addition, with president Ma Ying-jeou's and his government's alleged determination to initiate judicial reform, I wanted to use my case as a test of their real resolve to improve and clean up the woefully deficient judiciary here, especially where it concerns foreigners.

  

I sent both this original English version and a Chinese version translated (very roughly) by Google Translator.

  This is the Judicial Yuan's stock response which clearly fails to adequately address nearly all the points and questions I raised in my complaint. It illustrates quite well the nearly 4 years of bureaucratic indifference, run-around and even bias I have faced again and again in Taiwan.

Note: As of sometime last year, the school changed its name to the National Taiwan University of Nursing & Health Sciences.  

Back To The Control Yuan

  In my blog post of Sept. 24, 2010 Some Answers I mentioned letters I had received from the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office and the Control Yuan. The letters were in response to complaints I had filed against the nursing university. I filed the same complaint with each body. Here is an edited copy (because a certain former VP of the school is a serial lawsuit filer) of the complaint:

 

 Here is the Control Yuan's confirmation they had accepted my complaint and were going to investigate it:

  

Here We Go Again!

  On Thursday, January 6, I was in the Taipei district court building to find out when I could finish copying the files of my civil lawsuit case. Apparently the staff misunderstood my reason for being there and she proceeded to tell me (in Chinese) "you're judge is gone."
  I thought I might have misunderstood what she said, so I asked the security guard standing nearby if he could help me and ask what the staff meant by the judge was gone. After some discussion, the guard explained that (supposedly) the judge in my case had "retired" four days earlier and so a new judge would be assigned to my case. It was deja vu! Lightning struck twice!
  For the second time in 2-1/2 years, the judge will suddenly be replaced and at the same point in the case as the first time - when the judge was due to make/announce his decision. It's also the second time the judge will replaced after I filed one or more complaints against the judge, including one this time specifically asking that the judge either allow me to testify or be removed and replaced.

  Just a coincidence...2 times?

  Here is a an edited copy of the complaint (written in Chinese by the staff from my explanation of the problems) I filed with the Control Yuan on November 10, 2010:

  I'll post an English translation of this complaint as soon as I can get it, and I'll be posting more documents from this 3-1/2 year saga. You'll see more clearly what kind of experience I've been through having to navigate this nightmare in a foreign language in a foreign country. Case documents, court hearings, more than 95% of everything related to the lawsuit and the administrative appeal have been in Chinese, putting me at a grave and perpetual disadvantage. Mostly I've only managed to get very cursory explanations of the documents and little more than that of the court proceedings, even the few times that an interpreter was present.
  According to the Control Yuan staff, this complaint was sent to the Taipei District Court and normally the Control Yuan will get a response to a complaint within 2 months of the date it was filed.  
  Here is a letter I sent to the judge and the Judicial Yuan in October 2010 before filing the complaint with the Control Yuan:  http://pow3hatan-warrior4justice.blogspot.com/2010/10/documenting-my-numerous-requests-to.html
  I'd like for all the documents I share on this blog to be available with English translations, so if there are any of you reading who can help or you know someone who could help with translations, please send your translation to or contact me at jugger3naut@live.com

Reflections After A Life Is Taken IV

  I could hardly have imagined that a place where I worked relatively trouble-free for 4 years - and I had only one more year to finish before going home - and devoted much extra time to, even worked some ridiculous overtime hours for, would turn turn out to have such two-faced, immoral and unscrupulous administrators who would stoop to the lowest to further their own agenda and ambitions with such a dastardly and outrageous fraud - collaborating with a mentally ill student to falsely accuse me of sexual harassment. It was literally the worst nightmare of my childhood rearing its ugly head again in adult life - the horrible bullies of my youth come to life again over 35 years later in mid-life.

  What began as an unsubstantiated, bogus allegation, by a lone, rogue student fairly quickly unveiled itself as a nefarious plot between the student and certain administrators to go way over the top to ensure my contract would not be renewed (as had had already been done) and that I would have extremely little to no chance of challenging the false accusation or the reversal of my contract renewal. Suddenly I went from the safety and certainty of another year's work at the nursing university to a panicked scramble to find a new job within one month (before my alien resident certificate and work permit expired) , and find out what to do to defend myself from the lies and potential damage to my livelihood, reputation and stable financial condition.

  With no family here for the kind of close support and help I needed, I had only some Taiwanese friends to turn to for assistance. My closest friends came through for me with much-needed moral support, encouragement, and some real help I needed in dealing with the many people and government agencies that became involved in this situation. These friends were the ones who did much to help me survive the first several months of this unreal ordeal - the most stressful, traumatic and turbulent times of this nightmare sham.

  Even a few so-called "friends" - colleagues and faculty at the nursing college that I had little professional or personal interaction with during my tenure there - suddenly emerged shortly after the accusation spread around the campus. They also contributed significantly to my early survival and provided some essential, sometimes confidential, information and evidence that buoyed my initial defense. In time, however, I was to see that some of those who came out of nowhere with their help had strong ulterior, self-serving motives that eventually resulted in them suddenly abandoning their assistance once they had achieved their objectives. My case was much more than just a "simple" case of a false accusation and effort to remove the last foreign English teacher at the nursing university by hook or crook. My position in the school was connected to the school's efforts to upgrade from a college to a university and the false allegation against me was coopted by a certain faction of faculty and staff at the school who were hellbent on preventing one of the candidates running for the next president of the school in 2008 from winning - a crony of the then current president and the one of the principal faculty members who illegally spread my name around the campus long before I was officially notified of the false allegation one of her nursing students made against me!

  In my efforts to survive those overwhelmingly negative and frustrating first months of this fight for the truth and and escape from this nightmare, there were two other significant things I did to keep myself from going off the deep end. 

  One was to escape Taiwan three times in the first eight months of this ordeal for short travel to cool down, to maintain some semblance of normalcy, and to refresh my mind and my spirit to continue the titanic struggle which was shaping up to be a protracted David vs Goliath battle.   

  The second came after 9 months of also battling to control the periodic bouts of depression, rage and uncharacteristic thoughts and urges to take matters into my own hands. I began counseling at the Tienmu Community Center - twice a month at first and later once a month - and continued for one year until I eventually took a long leave from Taiwan in early 2009 to work in Thailand.