This afternoon, Taiwan's 60-year-old former president Chen Shui-bian is going to be transferred from a detention center where he has been detained for two years to a jail where he will serve a 20 years' imprisonment term, for corruption crimes he did not commit. Chen was a political prisoner 30 years ago before he started his political career, and now he has become a political prisoner again. KMT, an armed Chinese political party which originated in China in the 1920s and fled to Taiwan in 1949 after being defeated in a civil war by the armed Chinese Communist Party, is accountable for Chen's two instances of being a political prisoner. 

Two years ago, Chen and his wife were indicted by pro-KMT prosecutors for corruption crimes they did not commit. The two-year trial which was conducted by pro-KMT judges did not demonstrate fairness and due process, and did not even pay any respect for the rule of law. Large amounts of political donations Chen lawfully received from businessmen, under Taiwan's Act of Political Donations, during Chen's political campaign for presidency were unduly seen by the pro-KMT judges as bribes. With pro-KMT media, Chen was presumed guilty before the trial began. It is because, in the eye of the pro-China KMT, Chen is definitely guilty for advocating Taiwan's independence from China. China asserts ownership over a land (Taiwan) China does not own. Similarly, although there is no solid evidence against Chen and his wife, the KMT's court sentenced the 60-year-old married coupled to a 20-year imprisonment term for corruption crimes they did not commit.

Taiwanese history was and is marked by colonialism, as Taiwanese people is always subjected to the reign and mercy of her colonial rulers, the Dutch, Spaniards, Chinese,  Japanese, and now Chinese again. It is the time for Taiwanese people to contemplate what true democracy means and the reasons why Taiwan is always governed by foreigners.