"Freeze! I am a Legislator!"

During the Legislative Yuan's negotiation of the central government general budget for fiscal year 2005 on the 13th of this month, not only did legislators from the Kuomintang and People First Party heavily cut the budgets of the Judicial Yuan and High Court out of dissatisfaction with constitutional interpretation rulings and election litigation results, but multiple legislators under criminal investigation also forcibly withheld the budgets of the prosecutorial agencies investigating their alleged crimes—specifically, the NT$7 million budget for the High Prosecutors Office's Special Investigation Division (SID) on Action against Organized Crime and Black Gold, and over NT$4 million in general operational expenses for the Taichung Branch of the High Prosecutors Office. Such acts by "defendant legislators" using the budget to threaten "prosecuting prosecutors not to make a move" are viewed with utmost contempt by the Taiwan Prosecutors Reform Alliance (hereinafter the Prosecutors Reform Alliance), which also harbors deep concerns over Taiwan's ability to eradicate black gold.

Among the two prosecutorial agencies whose budgets were withheld this time, the Taipei Special Investigation Team has already indicted a certain Legislator Ho, and is currently investigating a certain Legislator Lin and his spouse; the Taichung Special Investigation Team is investigating a certain Legislator Fu and the campaign aides of Legislator Ch'en. Whether attending in person or instigating other legislators to step forward, these implicated legislators deliberately singled out these two agencies for budget withholding while allowing the budgets of other prosecutorial agencies to pass through general cuts. Their underlying motive—akin to Szu-ma Chao's well-known intent—is blatantly obvious. The Prosecutors Reform Alliance calls upon these implicated legislators and their proxy legislators to rein in before it's too late, and earnestly urges the prosecuting prosecutors and their supervisory chief prosecutors at these two agencies not to back down on account of this. They must investigate entirely based on evidence and must not sacrifice long-term social justice in exchange for short-term budgets.

Sweeping away black gold is a broad social consensus. When reviewing the budget for fiscal year 2004 in January 2004, the Legislative Yuan passed the following main resolution in a plenary session: "In view of the fact that the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office's 'Special Investigation Division on Action against Organized Crime and Black Gold and various special investigation teams' have achieved outstanding performance since their establishment, meeting the shared expectations of both the ruling and opposition parties and the public for government efforts to sweep away black gold. Furthermore, based on the promotion of more comprehensive legal institutionalization for the 'Special Investigation Division on Action against Organized Crime and Black Gold and various special investigation teams,' the 'Draft Amendments to the Court Organization Act' has already been reviewed and passed by this Yuan's organic laws and judicial committee, and is currently undergoing cross-party negotiations alongside the 'Judicial Yuan Organization Act.' To maintain the consistency of the government's policy of sweeping away black gold and prevent any interruption in anti-black gold efforts, before the Legislative Yuan completes the legislative amendments, the budget for the 'Special Investigation Division on Action against Organized Crime and Black Gold and various special investigation teams' shall be maintained." A year later, if the Legislative Yuan were to overturn its prior resolution simply because a handful of legislators are being investigated by prosecutors, would that not blatantly declare that "others can be prosecuted, but legislators cannot"? Such an act of abetting black gold forces in Taiwan will inevitably be spurned by the public. We implore the honorable members of the Legislative Yuan to exercise budget review prudently, uphold social justice, and support the prosecutors' efforts to sweep away black gold.

Taiwan Prosecutors Reform Alliance

Taiwan Bar Association
Taipei Bar Association
Taiwan Law Association
Prosecutors Reform Association
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Association for Taiwan Human Rights
Judicial Reform Foundation