The Debauched "Prosecutorial" Career of Wine and Women

The fatal shooting at Taichung's Chin-Pao-Pao KTV unexpectedly dragged out a scandal involving prosecutors and police officers drinking and socializing at hostess bars, once again bringing the disciplinary and ethical issues of the judicial, police, and investigative agencies into the spotlight. Minister of Justice Ch'en Ting-nan confirmed during an interpellation at the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee of the Legislative Yuan that seven prosecutors from prosecutors offices in Taichung, Changhua, and Nantou were indeed present at the scene, along with two suspected judges. Coincidentally, recent reports also emerged regarding an extramarital affair involving a prosecutor surnamed Ch'en from the Taichung Branch of the High Prosecutors Office and three Kaohsiung prosecutors drinking at hostess bars with drug lords. The recent turmoil within the prosecutorial community is truly embarrassing.

In response to this recent series of prosecutorial disciplinary issues, Minister Ch'en Ting-nan publicly apologized to the nation. To demonstrate his determination to resolve this deeply rooted chronic malady, he further stated that he would cooperate with the Judicial Yuan to draft the "Judges Act" and "Prosecutors Act," hoping to legislate separately from the Civil Service Discipline Act so that law-breaking and undisciplined prosecutors can face dismissal. However, regardless of the future legislative outcome, judging from the current private misconduct of domestic police, investigative units, and even judicial trial personnel, the entire judicial sector has been disgraced, utterly humiliated, and its reputation and prestige have seemingly vanished completely.

According to Article 5 of the Civil Service Employment Act, civil servants shall fulfill the so-called "obligation of personal dignity," be honest, upright, cautious, and diligent, and shall not engage in arrogant, greedy, dissolute, luxurious, licentious, gambling, or opium-smoking behaviors, or any other acts that damage their reputation. Under our criminal procedure system, prosecutors are also a part of civil servants and logically should be bound by this obligation. Looking at this hostess bar incident as a whole, the personnel involved went in groups, exhibiting a very arrogant attitude. After the incident unexpectedly came to light, instead of coming forward to explain this collateral matter, they remained tight-lipped and even covered for one another, making them all the more despised by the people. Prosecutors represent the state in exercising the judicial power of criminal prosecution to realize the state's penal power; such habits are enough to turn judicial discipline into a laughingstock.

Furthermore, compared to administrative personnel, judicial personnel—whose responsibilities are inextricably linked to trial, prosecution, and investigation—wield public authority bestowed by the state that often easily exerts significant impact or even causes harm to the rights and interests of the people. Prosecutors enjoy independent crime investigation powers, direct investigative units in handling cases, and with the implementation of the reform requiring prosecutors to be present throughout court proceedings, the role of prosecutors in investigative and criminal court proceedings will become increasingly heavy. The relevant personnel involved are intimately associated with individuals working in special industries who constantly walk the legal tightrope, and even drink and make merry with underworld figures, night after night. It is truly difficult not to draw negative associations. Such abuse of the position and status conferred by public authority to satisfy one's own desires not only damages private morality, but is also a warning sign of the corruption of the nation's judicial system.

Venues of debauchery are inherently mixed places of dragons and snakes where right and wrong intertwine; not only did the personnel involved fail to avoid them, but they instead indulged in local drinking culture, showing that they held government integrity in utter disregard. In situations susceptible to suspicion, how can such integrity be used to clear their names? How can they gain the trust of the people? Although such incidents may merely be the work of a few black sheep ruining discipline, they could also be the tip of the iceberg. How to correct these judicial personnel who fail to keep themselves clean and self-respecting in order to rebuild judicial discipline is truly an urgent priority for the Ministry of Justice, as the competent authority, to take drastic measures. Such a carefree "prosecutorial" career of song, dance, and prosperity—it is time for it to come to an end!

※ Published in: Liberty Times