The Hypocrisy And The Audacity (Of Taiwan's Government)

  The Taiwan government's hypocrisy and double standards on the law, due process and human rights was on full display earlier this month in a transnational case involving a Taiwanese diplomat based in the U.S. accused of abusing her domestic worker and violating human trafficking laws among other things. 

  Apparently, the Taiwan government believes that Taiwan is the only place in the world where  everything is "done according to the law" and no one should question or challenge the actions and decisions of the authorities and judiciary. As well, in it's reaction to the arrest and detention of the diplomat, the Taiwan government showed it's nearly complete disregard for the issue of others' human rights, instead playing it's very popular "sovereignty card", whining incessantly that the case somehow involved China and disregard for Taiwan's sovereignty . 

  And in a farcical attempt to try and help Liu escape U.S. due process and law, the Taiwan government insisted for days that she was protected by diplomatic immunity in part because her alleged criminal misconduct was performed while on official duty. In perhaps the ultimate act of hypocrisy, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs even protested that diplomat Liu's "human rights were violated" in her arrest. What sheer audacity!

  No one in Taiwan's government, certainly no one in the judiciary, not even any of my lawyers from the Legal Aid Farce concerned themselves with my human rights as they were continually violated by undue process and selective application of or disregard for various laws and regulations. Trying to point out the various violations of my legal and human rights was like speaking in a foreign language to these people. Some even took the attitude that just by the mere existence of my case in the court and my having a lawyer provided by the LAF my legal and human rights were being safeguarded and protected. What a crock! Human rights are little more than empty words and a HUGE sham perpetuated by successive governments on the island. 

  Read this editorial for some interesting insight from the Taiwanese author on the Liu case and how it exposes the hypocrisy and truth of human rights in Taiwan: Human Rights Treated As a Slogan

  Here are a few of the many stories I came across as I followed developments in Liu's arrest and subsequent guilty plea:

Taiwan Diplomat in Kansas USA Arrested by FBI for Abusing Philippine Housekeeper, Embarrassing President Ma's Government 

Talk of The Day -- Taiwan-U.S. ties Tested by Diplomat's Arrest 

Details of Envoy’s US Arrest Emerge 

Taiwanese Diplomat May Wait in Prison for Months

02/09/12 Update: I've started a new blog entitled Giving Up a Life's Worth of Music, Movies and More For My Kids' Future 
 

Putting a Price on Life and Human Rights in Taiwan

  I came across a very enlightening editorial in the Nov. 7 Taipei Times newspaper about the Taiwanese judiciary's recent ruling that the mother of a wrongly convicted and executed young serviceman would receive $3.4 million in compensation for the loss of her son. While highlighting several troubling aspects of this case, author Lin Feng-jeng aptly points out the Taiwanese judiciary's and government's penchant for claiming that everything they do is "done according to the law." 
  According to the faulty logic of this oft-used excuse in Taiwan, the young man's confession under torture and duress, his execution, the lack of punishment for those guilty of violating his human and legal rights and for orchestrating his conviction and execution, were all handled "according to the law." 
  In my case, I was also told numerous times by the judge, prosecutor's and staff at the prosecutor's office, and even by some lawyers, that everything about my case was being handled "according to the law." In fact, my last lawyer, in a fit of anger while we were arguing about how poorly my case was being handled by the court and how much my legal and human rights were being violated, told me point-blank that "The truth didn't matter." He went on to explain that in Taiwan's courts, what judges care about is "who has the evidence" that the judge deems relevant according to his own thinking. Put simply, the parties in court are at the whims, fancies and biases of the particular judge, and whoever is lucky enough to be in the judge's favor will win the case!
  Read the editorial for more about how the law, judiciary and government handle legal and human rights in Taiwan:  Vote For a Legal System That Is Just

Not Even Marriage & Family Escape Injustice in Taiwan

  In yet another sterling example of how Taiwan's authorities so often disregard foreigners' legal rights and how decisions are made in a vacuum - lacking common sense, decency, compassion or adherence to international principles of human rights - here is a September 2011 story from the island's press about scores of international marriages in Taiwan blighted by the heavy-handed and callous treatment of the foreign spouses by the National Immigration Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Quite often in matters involving foreigners, the authority's (mis)handling of their cases involves elements of politics as much as institutional and/or personal bias against non-Taiwanese.

Dealing with a misguided MOFA