What do our ombudsmen really want?

Impeached officials may submit a written reply and/or appear before the commission to defend themselves. There are six disciplinary measures which the commission may order: dismissal, suspension from office, demotion, reduction of salary, issuing of a demerit, and reprimand. Only dismissal and reprimand are applicable to political appointees.

That means nothing can be done to punish the top police investigator and prosecutors in charge if they are found responsible for hastily closing the assassination case. None of them were political appointees. Should they be warned of any punishment, they could apply for retirement. Retirees are immune to any such punishment.

On the other hand, the Wu investigation failed to get the truth out. Many people believe the truth cannot be found, no matter how hard investigators may try. The Warren Commission did not find out who actually shot and killed President Kennedy. The truth commission of the Legislative Yuan failed to identify the culprit. Neither could the Wu commission. Nor will any future truth commission. The case will remain a mystery, unless President Chen tells the truth. Will he?

As if this much ado about nothing is not enough, our ombudsmen have just decided to question President Ma Ying-jeou in connection with the alleged Maokong Gondola scandal. They are trying to find out whether there was any possible wrongdoing in the construction of the cable car system that ferried tourists between the Taipei C ity zoo and Maokong Hill. The service was suspended after a number of cable towers had been found crumbling after a typhoon sideswiped Taipei in September 2007. Repairs and reinforcements have yet to be completed, and the Taipei municipal authorities that run the system have promised to reopen the service before the forthcoming Chinese New Year Festival. The first day of the Year of the Tiger falls on next February 14.

The ombudsmen have already questioned Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin about how the system was built. They want to find out if Ma was responsible for deciding to build an improperly-designed cable car service, while he was mayor of the capital. We do not know whether they would propose corrective measures and forward them to Ma, if they should discover it was made without due consideration. As president, Ma is immune to criminal prosecution. He cannot implement any improvements based on any possible corrective measures, even if he wanted to.

Why don't our ombudsmen, who believe they are the modern reincarnations of China's imperial censors, remain sinecure retirees?

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