This is an OP-ED letter
published in Liberty Times on August 10, 2014 by a Taipei Citizen, Mr. Wang
Chien-Ren, who, upon hearing that the Special Investigation Unit dropped the
charge against President Chen after over five years of investigation into the
phantom case of money laundering, the so called 700 million Oversea Money,
realized that we, the people in Taiwan, owe President Chen a sincere apology. The
original letter is listed below with the translation as follows:
We are sorry, President Chen
Wang Chien-Ren, a Taipei Citizen with a profession in publishing and book
review.
Translated by
Jay Tu
Aug. 10, 2014
The Special Investigation
Unit recently closed out the investigation on KMT/Ma and saw no evil in the
land deal in which Ma, as the KMT chair, sold the assets KMT admitted stolen
from the people. Later on, they also dropped a charge against former President
Chen Shui-bian, which is the so called Oversea Seven Hundred Million Case,
because they could not find any evidence of wrongdoings after over five years
of investigation. Upon hearing this, my first reaction was, "What? There
was no Oversea Seven Hundred Million?" This case was so sensationalized
that everybody believed it was true, and now it turned out to be just a
charade. Is it a bad dream? (Note that this case was the main reason that
the public opinion was turned so negatively against President Chen)
As the case is now proven
false, why is former President Chen still in jail? I checked carefully and
realized that President Chen was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the
Longtan land case and the second financial reform case. However, in fact, there
is no direct evidence to prove that President Chen took any bribes in these two
cases and the only witness, Jeffrey Koo, Jr., had admitted that he lied in his
testimony. The High Court found President Chen guilty based on a newly invented
argument, the so-called "de facto influence". By speculating that the
former president would have some influence in the land deal, the High Court
sentenced President Chen to twenty years in prison. This "de facto
influence" argument is so vague, and yet, just this argument alone, the
High Court can put away a former President, condemning him to twenty years of
imprisonment. They even deny him the right of medical parole despite he has
been tortured to near death, while insisting that they followed all the laws
and that this is a judicial case rather than a political persecution. Do they
really think all the people in Taiwan are idiots? Not to mention a bunch of KMT
members, who have been convicted of corruption, are all freed on bail and are
allowed to go anywhere, everywhere.
I do not know how many
people were like me, who might not believe that President Chen embezzled his
Presidential Discretionary Fund (the very first case against him to place him
under custody), but was convinced that the case of Oversea 700 Million Case was
true. How could you not believe it? The
accusation was so sensationalized, so vivid, so catchy, repeated by all media,
and the Red Shirt Guard Protest Against Chen was so in fashion. How could you
not be persuaded to believe Chen was guilty of corruption when the whole
society in Taiwan was so convinced of his guilt? (After all, by claiming Chen
was corrupted, the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou was able to handily collect more than
seven million votes in 2008's presidential election.)
Of course, I am not ready to
claim that Chen was a great president simply because he was not corrupted. However,
fact is fact, whether or not he was a great president is irrelevant in arguing
if he had committed a crime.
We, the people in Taiwan,
bear the responsibility to sit on our hands and watch President Chen wrongfully
imprisoned, because we were so blind to believe in the one-sided story, to
accept the heresay, and to allow the mocking of his children and smearing of
his family, while refusing to believe the possibility that he was framed.
However, it is never too
late to admit our mistakes. We should find facts by reexamining all the cases
against President Chen with the same zealous that we have put in to uncover the
lies Ma told us for the sake of forcing through the Service Pact with China. We
must renounce all the prejudiced information and seek justice for President
Chen, for which he deserves.
〈自由廣場〉陳前總統，對不起
專事出版和書籍評介、台北市民 王乾任
2014-08-10
日前看到特偵組簽結國民黨並無賤賣黨產一案後，隨即也簽結了陳水扁前總統的海角七億案，說是查無實據。第一時間，我的反應是，「什麼，原來沒有海角七億？」曾經那樣被信誓旦旦的海角七億，竟然是一場遊戲一場夢嗎？
那為什麼陳前總統還被關在監獄裡？仔細查了一下，是因為龍潭案跟二次金改案被判刑。然而，這兩案其實並無直接證據證明陳前總統收賄，唯一的證人辜仲諒之說詞，也是有疑義的，只剩下一個所謂的「實質影響力」說，是令陳前總統被關廿年的理據。「實質影響力」這麼虛無飄渺的東西可以把一個前總統入獄廿年，關到快死了都還不准保外就醫，卻堅持說這是司法案件而非政治迫害，真的當全台灣的人都腦殘嗎？更別說一堆國民黨的貪污犯全都可以在外面四處趴趴走。
我不知道有多少人像我一樣，雖然不相信特別費案陳前總統有罪，但卻相信了海角七億說，畢竟那套說法太過繪聲繪影，太過琅琅上口，且紅衫軍倒扁是那麼的流行而時尚的一件事，當年幾乎全部的媒體，都是那樣口徑一致地指責陳水扁貪污，當時的社會氛圍，讓人不相信陳水扁有貪污都難（否則，國民黨的馬英九也不會光靠打扁，就拿下七百多萬票）。
當然我不敢過度推論說，極有可能根本沒有貪污的陳前總統是好總統。只不過，沒有幹的事情就是沒有幹，是不是好總統跟有沒有犯罪是兩回事。
陳前總統入獄這個責任，社會必須一起承擔，一起究責，因為曾經我們有那麼多的人相信了片面的資料，就接受了陳前總統有貪污的說法，以至於當他被下獄時我們冷眼旁觀，甚至嘲諷他的子女，將扁家污名化，一點都不相信他有可能是被誣陷的。
為時未晚，知道自己有錯然後悔改，我們不要被過往社會氛圍或媒體形塑的陳水扁形象所蒙騙，要像了解服貿一樣的態度，重新檢視陳前總統的各個案件以及判刑依據，然後找出自己可以且該做的事情，還陳前總統一個公道。
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