by Xin Yage

The president has accused a fellow party member and parliamentary speaker of interfering in the trial involving an opposition lawmaker. Public opinion is divided over the latter's overturned conviction, but support for the president is slipping over the affair, and he could be impeached.

Taipei (AsiaNews) - In spite of the diplomatic success of President Ma Ying-jeou (马英九), who successfully attended a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) despite Beijing's opposition, a dispute within the ruling Kuomintang ( KMT or 国民党) is likely to cancel out any of its positive effects. The reason is a controversy concerning Parliamentary Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a member of the KMT, who apparently manipulated a trial against opposition lawmaker Ker Chien- ming (柯建铭).

At the time of the trial, Wang had asked then Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu (曾 勇 夫), who resigned last month over the affair, to stop prosecutors from appealing to the Supreme Court against Ker's acquittal. Eventually, the latter's conviction by a lower court was overturned by the Supreme Court (台湾 高等法院).

In time, President Ma spoke out against Wang for interfering with the course of justice. On 11 September 11, Wang was expelled from the party in order to force him to resign as speaker.

Viewed as part of infighting in the ruling party, Wang Jin-pyng was expelled from the party when he was in Malaysia for his daughter's wedding, a move that improved Wang's popularity.

Unperturbed, Wang went to court and won the case against his party's expulsion, thus enabling him retain his post as speaker.

On 29 September, a large group of protesters gathered outside the presidential palace to demand instead Ma Ying-jeou's resignation.

Eventually, the affair took a new turn when it was revealed that prosecutors had acquired information concerning Ker by wiretapping his phones.

For the government, the wiretap was legal, but every opposition party and even some KMT lawmakers countered by saying that wiretapping parliament telephone lines is completely illegal.

Since the issue emerged, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP or 民主進步黨) has called for the abolition of the Special Investigation Division (SID or 特侦组) for abuse of power, accusing Attorney General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) of illegally passing confidential information to President Ma.

In a phone interview, the president has tried to downplay the issue; yet he still has to rely on the same parliamentary speaker whom he has accused of dereliction of duty.

• taiwan
• wiretapping
• scandal
• kuomitang