Category: Western Culture

Barack Gets Rolled

According to the Washington Post, the Chinese were apparently resigned to the American president meeting with the Dalai Lama in October, but in an act of Picardian sensitivity, Obama called the whole thing off.

Money quote from web page 2:

"We've got the classic case of a Western government yet again conceding to Chinese pressure that is imaginary long after that Chinese pressure has ceased to exist," said Robert Barnett, a Tibetan expert at Columbia University. "The Chinese must be falling over themselves with astonishment at what Western diplomats will give them without being asked. I don't know what the poker analogy would be. 'Please, see all my cards and take my money, too?' "

If it's any consolation, Western governments ain't the only ones doin' that . . .

UPDATE (Feb 20, 2010):  The Weekly Standard describes the Dalai Lama's visit when it finally went through:

It takes a special talent to aggravate the Chinese government, the White House press corps, and the followers of the Dalai Lama all in one fell swoop. But the Obama administration managed to pull off that trifecta on Thursday with its poor handling of the Dalai Lama's meeting with the president.

State Of California Deprives Phil Spector Of His Constitutional Right To “Look Good”

Story at The Smoking Gun., via Drudge.

For those not living in Taiwan, the title of this post refers to a recent case where a protester snatched a wig worn by one of the county's more contemptible politicians.  Not that I approve of such actions, but I got a kick out of the Taiwanese legal reasoning:

Huang Yung-tien (黃永田), 50, who tore the toupee off Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) last year, was sentenced to five months in jail for depriving Chiu of his freedom to “look good,” Taipei District Court spokesman said yesterday. “The judge thought Chiu Yi had the freedom to wear what he wanted, and Chiu felt the hairpiece made him look better,” spokesman Huang Chun-ming (黃俊明) said. “The judge thinks that to remove it intentionally was to take away that right.”  [emphasis added]

Music producer Phil Spector in court, arguing that he should be permitted to wear a giant wig in prison.

(Phil Spector image from Bob Dylan Enclyclopedia blog.  Just a wild guess here, but if they're not letting him wear this in prison, they're probably doing him a favor.)

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Agents Provocateurs And Cover-Ups

Fascinating story about a West German policeman who killed Benno Ohnesorg, a left-wing protester back in the '60s.  That killing (and the policeman's subsequent acquittal) ended up becoming one of the primary catalysts for the creation of the terrorist Red Army Faction.

What if everything we knew about the case was wrong?

According to new documents uncovered by two German researchers, [the policeman] Karl-Heinz-Kurras was not the "fascist" cop of popular indignation, but a longtime agent of the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi) and a member of the East German Communist party.   [emphasis added]

[…]

While there is no evidence that Kurras acted as an agent provocateur in shooting Ohnesorg, it is doubtless true that had his political sympathies–and his covert work for the Stasi–been known in 1967, the burgeoning radical student movement would have been deprived of its most
effective recruiting tool. As Bettina Roehl, the journalist daughter of terrorist Ulrike Meinhof, argued in Die Welt, the glut of post-Ohnesorg propaganda helped establish "the legend of an evil and brutal West Germany," while simultaneously minimizing the very real brutality of Communist East Germany.

Something to keep in the back of one's mind for future cases of police brutality * towards democratic protesters in Taiwan.  There are some (like myself) who are fairly quick to suspect KMT orders (or more insidiously, unspoken incentives) for such conduct.  Like the West Germans though, we might sometimes be looking for answers on the wrong side of the Wall.  Or the Strait, as the case may be.

With regards to Kurras, there are some unsettling questions.  Was he acquitted fair-and-square?  Or was he, in fact, the beneficiary of a police cover-up?  

If the latter, then West German society certainly paid a heavy price for that single miscarriage of justice. **

*  The two most egregious incidents within the last year have been the dislocation of a woman's finger in response to her carrying a Tibetan flag last November, and the running down of two elderly protesters at a democracy march last month.  In the first case, no law enforcement officer has ever been held to account.  While in the second, the driver of the police cruiser was slapped with ONE WHOLE DEMERIT on his work record.

One demerit.  For driving twice the speed limit near an area in which a pre-scheduled political rally was taking place.  For crashing into two senior citizens with enough force that one had to have his foot and lower leg amputated, and the other was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage.

One demerit.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh.  After all, he DID have pretty good excuse:  "Those 67 and 68 year-olds darted out into traffic like a coupla GAZELLES, I tells ya !"

Who wouldn't believe a story like that?

**  Not that Taiwan hasn't paid its own high price for miscarriages of justice.  In reading this account of the 2-28 Massacre, it's hard not to speculate that the entire bloody business in 1947 could have been avoided if the police (Tobacco Monopoly Agents, actually) had been willing to punish four of their own for maltreating a female cigarette peddler.

But then, sometimes it's easier to mow civilians down with machine guns, than admit that you're wrong.

Rod Blagojevich and Chen Shui-bian

A couple weeks ago, David Ting (of Taiwan's China Post) wrote a column which invited comparison between the Blagojevich case in America with the Chen Shui-bian case in Taiwan:

Chen Shui-bian's frothy-mouthed drivel in court, defiant and unchastened, evokes images of Ron [sic] Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois who was impeached and ousted from office two months ago for "plotting to sell" [an] Illinois senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.  "Blago" too, denied he had ever done anything wrong.  Yes, if by A-bian's standard.  The youthful-looking Serb descendant was only guilty of "plotting to sell the plum position, and had his political career ruined.  Was Blagojevich aggrieved?  The international media showed no sympathy for him.  It seems, therefore, our ex-president may have made the wrong bet by trying to politicize his case with the help of foreign media, which may cut both ways.

The issue of Blagojevich's and Chen's innocence or guilt is completely separate from the question as to whether their treatment by the justice system has been politically-neutral.  Compare and contrast:

1)  After Blagojevich received his bail-bond hearing, police escorted him out of the courthouse through an underground tunnel so the media could NOT take any "gotcha!" perp-walk footage.

Taiwan's former president was treated with far less discretion.  Police paraded him in handcuffs in full view of media cameras.

2)  Blagojevich was granted bail on the very same day he was arrested.  Bail was set at a paltry $4,500.  In addition, his passport was confiscated as a precaution against flight.

Taiwan's Chen Shui-bian was not granted bail — he was instead thrown into pre-trial detention, where conditions are apparently worse than Taiwan's regular penal system.  No hot showers, even in winter.  Bread and water for lunch.  That sort of thing.

(Chen's most recent request for bail was denied, partly because the current judge said the former president has not shown REMORSE for crimes he has not yet been tried or convicted upon.  This court will not grant you the presumption of innocence, sir, unless you first admit to us that you are GUILTY!)

3)  Blagojevich is at liberty to publicly protest his innocence on CBS' Late Night with David Letterman, NBC's Today, CNN's Larry King Live and Fox's On the Record with Greta van Susteren.

Taiwan's Chen on the other hand, was held incommunicado to all, save his lawyer.  In fact, when Chen's lawyer relayed to the public a POEM the former president wrote in detention to his wife, the KMT government began exploring options for legal sanctions against that lawyer.

(For purposes of completeness, I should also mention that Chen WAS briefly released by a judge, after which a KMT legislator threatened to have the judge investigated.  When the judge was duly replaced, the new judge sent Chen back to detention.  Chen is, however, now permitted at least SOME contact with the outside world, I understand.)

4)  To my knowledge, no Republican politician has ever publicly gloated over Blagojevich's fall.

In Taiwan, KMT legislators openly remarked that Chen's arrest was a joyous event.  Some of the rank-and-file agreed, setting off firecrackers in celebration.

Postscript:  The treatment of Bernard Madoff, the man accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, is also instructive.

Bernard Madoff was initially offered bail at $10 million.  When he couldn't come up with the money, he was offered an ankle bracelet and house arrest:

The new conditions require "round-the-clock monitoring at the defendant's building, 24 hours a day, including video monitoring of the defendant's apartment door(s) and communications devices and services permitting it to send a direct signal from an observation post to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the event of the appearance of harm or flight." Both Madoff and his wife, Ruth, have surrendered their passports as a part of the bail condition, and Ruth Madoff has signed confessions of judgment on the multi-million dollar properties in her name in Palm Beach, Florida and Montauk, Long Island, two of the nation's most desirous luxury retreats.

Now, Madoff's crimes are truly despicable.  A $50 billion Ponzi scheme.  Some people say $17 billion — whatever.  Charities — including Elie Wiesel's — plundered of their assets.  People's life savings wiped out.  Two or three suicides, so far . . .

And yet, despite public opposition, the American judge decided that house arrest in this case was preferable to incarceration.  Preferable, that is, until the defendant had been found guilty in a court of law.  There was no rush — society could surely wait 6 months or a year before sending Madoff to the big house.  (And as it turned out, it only took 3 months for the guy to plead guilty.)

What I've tried to demonstrate is that the Taiwanese judicial system has always had a whole spectrum of legal instruments to wield against former president Chen, and has at almost every turn chosen the harshest and most punitive.  Bail (be it  $4,500 or $10 million), passport confiscation, ankle bracelets or house arrest — all these things were options for dealing with the POSSIBILITY of Chen's flight prior to trial.  Yet the court scorned them in favor of pretrial detention in which the suspect was held incommunicado.

I think it's fair for the international media to wonder why.

Ma Ying-jeou, Meet Vaclav Klaus

Klaus would be the president of a country that DOESN'T hide its national symbols — and gets a mite tetchy when members of the Empire trample his nation's sovereignty:

The Czech Republic becomes the first former Soviet satellite to run the European Union today, as it takes over the EU presidency from President Nicolas Sarkozy after six months of dynamic crisis management.

[…]

In Prague Castle, the presidential seat, Klaus is refusing to fly the European flag for the next six months. He came face-to-face there with another verbal brawler, Danny Cohn-Bendit, the Franco-German Green. The encounter pitted the arch Eurosceptic against an ardent Euro-federalist. Cohn-Bendit accosted Klaus, unfurled the European flag and demanded to know why it was not fluttering over the castle.

"No one has ever spoken to me here in this tone. You aren't on the barricades of Paris. I have never heard anything so insolent in this hall . . . The way Cohn-Bendit speaks to me is exactly the way the Soviets used to speak."

Some nations are blessed with presidents who've got guts.  While others have presidents who are so lacking in that department that they order THEIR OWN COUNTRY'S FLAGS CONFISCATED to placate visitors from neighboring tyrannies.

(Hat tip to Ezra Levant)