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August 14, 2021

 

In 2015, the United Nations announced the "2030 Sustainable Development Goals," referred to as SDGs. The purpose is to provide goals and methods for the balance and resolution of global problems before 2030 and to help the world develop sustainably. In recent years, epidemics, climate change, and natural disasters have continued, and sustainable development has been more urgent. SDGs contain 17 main goals, and the 16th goal: "Promote a peaceful and pluralistic society, ensure judicial equality, and establish a credible and public opinion system" is particularly worthy of the Taiwan government's attention and review.

 

Taiwan is internationally known for its good democratic legal system and its transparent and effective handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Taiwan has also won the recognition of many international organizations. However, the handling of many cases by the Taiwanese government agencies has actually failed to reach the SDG16 target, which has exposed the flaws of Taiwan's democratic rule of law and the misuse or even abuse of state power. This is great harm to Taiwan's international reputation and positioning. Those in power must be more careful. The author takes some unjust cases as examples.

 

In the article "Judicial is a mirror to examine the country, and it also reflects the tolerance of society/SDGS-16 (Peace, Justice, and a Powerful Institution)," it is mentioned that two cases reflect Taiwan's judicial inaccuracy and injustice. In the first case, the aboriginal Wang Guanglu was sentenced to be guilty of illegal possession of shotguns and poaching. He believed that the government’s judgment did not respect the hunting customs and traditional culture of the aboriginals. In the second case, Chen Jingkai, a national sports player, was bumped into blindness. After receiving the compensation, he was "caught" by the perpetrator that he could move with ease. The judge sentenced Chen to be guilty of "fraud and insurance against blindness". Even if Chen presented seven diagnoses to prove that he was completely blind, he still couldn’t reverse the judge’s inner conviction.

 

The fallacy of the judgment in these two cases is that the government agencies do not respect traditional culture, and the second is that they do not use factual evidence and use their inner convictions to prove the results. These problems have even led to the occurrence of the unjust, wrong, and false Tai Ji Men case, an index case of human rights persecution in Taiwan. The issue in the Tai Ji Men case is that the tax authorities disrespect the ancient culture of grandmaster’s acceptance of dizi (apprentices). They arbitrarily believe that Tai Ji Men is a cram school and ignore the judicial third-instance verdict of Tai Ji Men’s innocence. The tax authority’s

 

ignorance has led to the substantive results of the investigation. That has made the Tai Ji Men grandmaster and dizi (apprentices) experience 25-year-long tax disasters. Even the government executive agency knew that the law enforcement was wrong, the officials still illegally auctioned the properties of Tai Ji Men, which seriously violated human rights.

 

At the International Forum on Freedom of Religious Belief held from July 13 to 15, 2021 in Washington, D.C., scholars and political opinion leaders from various countries have put forward suggestions to the Taiwan government on the Tai Ji Men case. Kenneth Jacobson, a professor of law at Temple University in Philadelphia and former adviser to President Clinton, said: "I call upon the leaders of Taiwan to fix the mistakes of the past. As I have said before, to allow errors to continue, to perpetuate mistakes that were made in the past, is as bad if not worse than committing those mistakes in the first place. This is travesty. It is a tragedy too. This is unjust. And as someone who respects and has lived his life and career respecting the rule of law, this is offensive and it should end and it should end now.”

 

The author also appeals to the Taiwan government to review the national administrative, judicial and government institutions as soon as possible. The government should sincerely put people first in legislation and governance. Besides, it should rectify the index human rights persecution case (the Tai Ji Men case) as soon as possible so as to declare Taiwan’s determination to defend its democratic and legal system. Therefore, the Taiwan government may have the chance to restore Taiwan's reputation and status in the international arena.