Taipei, Aug. 12 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen said Saturday that the government will continue its efforts to enact sweeping judicial reform in Taiwan.
Addressing a national conference on the subject at the Presidential Office, Tsai said judicial reform has been a priority for her Democratic Progressive Party administration since she took office in May 2016.
Tsai said, however, that she fully understood the differences of opinion on the issue and she promised that her government would respect all views.
Conflicting opinions on the type and pace of such reforms are common in a democracy like Taiwan, Tsai said, adding that it will take time for the society to realize the importance of reforming the nation's judicial system.
Saturday's meeting was the conclusion of a 10-month series of conferences on how to implement judicial reform in Taiwan. The effort is being led by a Presidential Office reform committee that was convened by Tsai last year to seek public opinion on the issue.
The Organizing Committee for National Conferences on Judicial Reforms, as it is called, comprises some 90 members from legal and academic circles and is led by Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li and Academia Sinica research fellow Chiu Hei-yuan.
The committee has been divided into five groups that met once every two weeks to discuss how to provide better protection for crime victims and the underprivileged, establish a fair and trustworthy judiciary, create a highly efficient and accountable judicial system, achieve greater engagement and transparency, and create a better system to maintain social order.
Tsai said the committee has also been examining the existing judicial system in Taiwan, and their opinions will lay the foundation for reform.
The conclusions of the national conference will provide critical direction for Taiwan to write laws in the future to improve its judicial system, the president said.
The effort to reform Taiwan's judicial system is being carried out amid widespread public distrust of the system and its enforcement officers, as indicated by several public opinion polls.
