The Taipei City Hall Corpse: More Skeletons in the Closet?
Sunday June 04, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.
You may have missed it, but Thursday night, June 1, the corpse of a 34-year-old woman, Chen Chin-chu was found on a third floor balcony of Taipei City Hall. That a dead body was found at City Hall is surprising enough but what is more surprising is that the body found there had been dead for some six months. What is not surprising is the following reaction.
In typical knee-jerk, pan-blue jackal style, the deceased sister's first response was to blame President Chen Shui-bian. There were no tears of relief that at least closure had been brought to her sister's long disappearance. There were no expressions of we miss her so. There was only the conviction that it was the President's doing.
Of course like the embarrassed woman in the hat that accompanied Chou Hsi-wei in his ill-fated attempt to prove the March 19 assassination shots came from within the jeep, the sister refused to give her name. It is the nature of jackals to make but not own up to rabid accusations.
Let's leave that aside however and examine more obvious questions that should be asked. The most obvious is how could a body be on a city hall balcony for over six months and not be noticed? While the balcony is not on the beaten track, it is still a place you would expect some workman, cleaner, or even a person stepping out for a smoke to visit in six months. (Taipei City Hall is smoke free and all smokers must use the balconies or other outside areas.)
This leads to the next question of how tight (or loose) of a ship is Ma Ying-jeou running at city hall that a body goes unnoticed for over six months?
And then, are there any more bodies we can expect to find at City Hall?
An investigation as to the cause of death is in order. Foul play should not be ruled out.
If the investigation turns to suicide, the mental state of Chen Chin-chu should be examined. Her sister stated that in protest she had waved the national flag in front of the Presidential Office every night since the March 19th assassination attempt (2004). That is over a year and psychologists will no doubt have answers to explain how many pan-blue people still cannot accept defeat.
In this past Saturday June 3rd protest, some pan-blue jackals went further to expose their mental state by trying to claim that Chen Chin-chu is a hero, a martyr for the cause.
Continued questions are in order. If foul play, by whom? Who would dump a body at city hall and then not want to call attention to it for six months? Certainly someone on the pan-blue side will claim it was done by the DPP to embarrass Ma Ying-jeou, but let's be realistic if you want a body to disappear there are plenty of isolated mountain areas.
If suicide, why would Chen Chin-chu choose city hall where (since she is such an avowed pan-blue supporter) her suicide would be sure to embarrass Ma Ying-jeou?
My bhagwa (¤K¨ö) sources suggest an unfortunate romance with someone in the City Education Department. That is certainly something no family member would want to own up to.
The Chen Chin-chu investigation is an investigation to follow. Starting small like Watergate, it has good chance of getting bigger. If the prosecutors are thorough and Chen's family is honest and forthcoming, we may see some revealing surprises and insights into the pan-blue mentality.
When Lee Shuang-chan committed suicide because of suspicions that he was murdering his Vietnamese wives for their insurance money, his brother Lee Tai-an created a website on how they were being persecuted and brazenly challenged the media. However, as the wheels of justice continued forward and more evidence came out he found himself forced to sing another tune.
Before the pan-blue make Chen Chin-chu a martyr they better wait for the full details to come out. But then that has never been their practice in the past, why start now.