Ex-President Chen Shui-bian cries foul
Written by Writer on Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Ex-President Chen Shui-bian cries foul
TAIPEI, Taiwan — “I am War Criminal Number One of the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party,” former President Chen Shui-bian claimed yesterday.
As he was walking 130 yards from his office to the office of the Special Counsel, Chen said he was going to the Bastille, probably just like Louis XVI in 1779 — a Bourbon king who was later guillotined.
Special Counsel prosecutors subpoenaed the ex-president for questioning as a defendant on charges of misusing his “state affairs fund” and money laundering.
Chen spoke with a score of supporters at his office before setting out, walking amidst cheers of hundreds of hard-core pro-independence activists.
Escorted by a few Democratic Progressive Party leaders, Chen described himself to the cheering crowd as “the largest stone in the way of the Chinese reunification that the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party are conspiring to usher in.”
Among the DPP leaders were four lawmakers: William Lai, Lawrence Gao, Yeh Yih-tsin and Chiu Yi-ying. Lai is a Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus deputy whip.
In what he called a statement on imprisonment, President Chen said Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), got angry when he encountered a violent protest in Taipei.
“He became even more irate back in Beijing,” President Chen went on. The ARATS chairman and his 60-member delegation visited Taipei from Monday to Friday last week. Four agreements were signed in Taipei to further improve relations between Taiwan and China.
As Beijing is getting angrier, the former president said,
“Ma Ying-jeou collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party to put me under arrest.”
On Monday, he said President Ma ordered his arrest.
“I am a sacrifice offered to mitigate the anger of Zhong Nan Hai,” President Chen declared. Zhong Nan Hai, in the heart of Beijing, is where President Hu Jintao, who doubles as general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and other party and government leaders live.
President Chen said: “I am very happy, very proud of playing this role.”
Facing riot police, President Chen said they tried to prevent the ARATS chairman from hearing the complaints of Taiwan’s people.
“But,” President Chen said, “none of you, nor your cheveaux de frise can muffle those complaints.”
Cheering crowds were then told President Chen is going back to where he was imprisoned 22 years ago. He served a brief sentence in defense of freedom of the press.
“Today, I am going to the Bastille, where my body can be caged, but no one can cage my heart there,” President Chen said.
“My heart is with the 23 million people of Taiwan,” he went on. “No matter how strongly guarded the Bastille prison may be,” he added, “it will be invaded and destroyed by the people.”
In fact, the former president said “Taiwan’s democracy, liberty, sovereignty and independence cannot be kept prison in Bastille. They have already blossomed out. They are bearing fruit.”
He declared his innocence. “I won’t be imprisoned for nothing,” he announced. “I will dedicate the rest of my life to working together with you to achieve our ultimate goal of making Taiwan and China, each on either side of the Strait,” he told his loyalist crowd.
“We will work together to achieve that unalterable goal, that eternal goal,” President Chen repeated.
The ex-president was carried away by his own speech. He burst out, with both hands raised high: “Go, go Taiwan! Long live the people of Taiwan! Long live Taiwan’s democracy! Long live independent Taiwan!”
Then he said goodbye to the crowd and entered the office of the Special Counsel.
It took eight minutes to cover the short distance between the two offices near the February 8 Memorial Park, where thousands of riot police maintained peace and order. He began his brief trek at 9:10 a.m.
Special Counsel prosecutors spent hours questioning the ex-president, who refused to answer. He claimed his right of silence but insisted on his innocence.
Prosecutors had the former president arrested at 4:30 p.m. They requested the Taipei district court have him detained.
President Chen raised his fettered two hands to make a victory sign while he was being taken away from the Special Counsel office to a waiting prison van, that took him to the Taipei detention house at Tucheng, 20 miles south of the special municipality.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:42 am TWN, By David Young, The China Post
