Republic of Corruption

Who Shot A-Bian?

It was an especially interesting week in the Republic of Corruption. Noted TV presenter Xiao S said she may be getting married, China released its Anti Secession Law and the police identified the alleged 319 shooter, Chen Yi-hsiung. For those of you who don’t live in the ROC, 319 (March 19th) was the date when Taiwanese President A-Bian [Chen Shui-bian] and his Vice President Anette Lu were lightly wounded in an apparent assassination attempt in Tainan. Coincidentally it was the day before the federal election. Unfortunately for the Pan Blues (KMT-PFP), A-Bian wasn’t killed but the assassination attempt and bungled investigation have led many people to question the validity of the incident.

I don’t have the time or inclination to recap the the 319 shooting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blogging at the time. The Pan Blues thought the shooting was staged and led island wide riots to demand truth and justice about the shooting. It was ironic that the same mainlanders and local sycophants that were directly and indirectly responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during Chiang Kai Shek and Chiang Ching-Kuo's White Terror were now so concernedwith ‘truth and justice.’

To make a long story short, the police announced on Monday that Chen Yi-hsiung was believed to be the 319 shooter. The police held a press conference to show some of the evidence compiled during the almost one year investigation:

* A video of a 50ish man in a yellow jacket running and not walking away from the scene of the crime.
* An old video of Chen Yi-hsiung denouncing A-bian on a popular TV talk show.
* Chen’s desk calendar where he wrote that the re-election of Chen Shui-bian would cause more people to emigrate from Taiwan.
* An explanation of the extensive investigation into the weapon. The weapon was traced back to the suspect who purchased his modified handgun shortly before the shooting.
* Three suicide notes given to family members that said Chen was becoming more and more depressed about the president being re-elected, and wanted to kill himself to reduce the burden on his family.
* A confession told to Chen’s wife. 'I did it and I will handle it myself.'
* The wife also claims to have given him a wash and a shave to change his looks.

Chen Yi-hsiung was from the same hometown as A-Bian, Tainan. He was an unemployed printer who liked fishing and swimming. He kept to himself and seldom argued with his neighbors. Tainan is A-Bian and DPP country but Chen Yi-hsiung had never denied his dislike for the President. Chen Yi-hsiung is said to have been eccentric and tight with his money. He had four children and it’s believed that after he retired he invested in the stock market. Before the shooting, it’s been said that Chen had faced a huge financial crisis. He owned property valued at nearly NT$10 million and was angry that he couldn’t sell his house because of A-bian’s alleged mismanagement of the economy.

The most intriguing aspect of this whole whodunit is that Chen Yi-hsiung is dead. It looks like Chen drove his car into a river in Tainan. The noted swimmer drowned on March 28 with his body being found on March 29, in and apparent suicide attempt. In addition the suicide notes and calendar were burned by the family. The man who allegedly sold him the weapon, Huang Hung-jen, was also found dead at his home of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police didn’t release the date of his death . So there you have after a one year investigation the police have no weapons, no live witnesses, no hard evidence and no yellow jacket. Wow five years of A-Bian and we have been given 'four more noes'. Big Ell thinks Chen Yi-hsiung’s English name may have been Oswald.

Background information was used from CNN
The picture of Chen Yi-Hsuing was found at the Taipei Times
Big Ell