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Control Yuan members rue failure to impeach Huang
By Stacy Hsu / Staff writer, with CNA
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Chen Chi-mai, left, Gao Jyh-peng, center, and Wu Ping-jui hold a press conference in Taipei yesterday calling on the government to reform the Control Yuan.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Control Yuan members Hung Te-hsuan (洪德旋) and Wu Feng-shan (吳豐山) yesterday said that although they respect that the impeachment motion they initiated against Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) was defeated on Tuesday, that did not change Huang’s being guilty of “serious” wrongdoing and dereliction of duty.
The pair made the remarks in a press release issued yesterday, one day after 12 Control Yuan members rejected the motion for a second time following a 6-6 vote. The members first voted down the motion on Nov. 28 last year in a 5-5 decision.
Control Yuan regulations require an impeachment motion to receive a clear majority of votes to pass, while a tie amounts to a defeat of the bid, which cannot be initiated more than twice.
Hung and Wu’s motion stemmed from allegations that Huang leaked classified information about an ongoing investigation by briefing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 last year on the Special Investigation Division’s probe into allegations of improper lobbying by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The probe snowballed into a political storm after revelations that the division lead by Huang had also bugged the legislature’s switchboard in its investigation.
“The success of an impeachment motion is decided by a group of Control Yuan members by a secret ballot... That is how the system works and we can only respect Tuesday’s results,” Wu and Hung said.
However, they expressed regret that over the past decade, the nation had made noticeable progress in almost all areas except in achieving judicial independence.
The key to achieving justice and judicial independence lies in judges and prosecutors upholding procedural justice and enforcing the law without fear or favor, the pair said.
“As the nation’s top prosecutor, Huang should have led by example. Instead, we found in our investigation into the claims of improper lobbying and leaks of confidential information that Huang perpetrated grievous wrongdoing and failed to fulfill his duty,” they said.
The two said they proposed the motion on the grounds that their conclusions were consistent with those of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecutors’ Evaluation Committee and an investigative task force established by the ministry.
Hung and Wu added they planned to make public the content of their report once it was approved by other Control Yuan members.
source: Taipei Times
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