Mon, Mar 01, 2004 page8

• Fugitives: corruption in business and politics

  • By Lao Pao 老包
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  The nation's most-wanted economic criminals all happen to support one particular presidential candidate and oppose the other.

  They act like Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) campaign chiefs, making comments that grab the media's attention. More absurdly, the pan-blue camp view them as God-sent helpers in its campaign against President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election bid. It is truly an unbelievable political scene.

  These criminals have one thing in common; that is, they all "do business" in China after leaving behind huge debts. As fugitives on the run, one might suppose they would keep a low profile. On the contrary, these criminals have pushed themselves into the limelight, speaking with straight faces and compelling confidence.

  The only reasonable explanation for their weird behavior is that they have made deals with Beijing. Maybe in exchange for asylum, they not only need to bribe the Chinese officials with the money they stole from Taiwan but also have to act like Beijing-hired political roughnecks at critical times. Their situation is similar to some businesspeople who were accused of spying in China a while ago, who also had to censure Chen ruthlessly on television.

  These criminals' pro-Lien rantings against Chen took place in China. A lot of unexpected things happen there anyway.

  What worries us, actually, is Taiwan's media.

  Most of Taiwan's media outlets chose to side with those criminals by echoing their theories and treating them as righteous, and our government as evil.

  These fugitives are economic criminals and thieves. They are by no means "political prisoners" in the sense that international human-rights organizations understand the term. It does not make sense for the Taiwanese media to dance to their tune.

  Is it possible that owners of these media corporations suffer from the same problem as these criminals -- that they face enormous financial debts and are trying to reverse the situation by helping corrupt political forces to make a comeback?

  If so, then no matter how hard Chen tries to prevent the comeback of bribery and corruption, the public will not be informed correctly because the power to interpret news is in the hands of those whose interests are embedded in corruption.

  Thus, it is not difficult to understand why Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) pledged to run a clean campaign immediately upon the request of the National Association Promoting Clean Elections, while Lien and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) made up excuses for not signing it and in the end reluctantly signed their English initials only. How did the media interpret this? If the Taiwanese media also tilt toward China, they cannot be fair and objective in this presidential election but only create more obstruction for Chen in his re-election bid.

  The reason why the economic criminals can flamboyantly criticize the president is because they are backed by the Chinese Communist Party as well as the pro-China media and politicians in Taiwan.

  The pan-blues voluntarily embrace the red star flag. Politicians attempted to incite an international dispute over a recent custody fight between Taiwanese and Brazilian families and used the incident to attack the government. One pro-China media outlet even compared the incident to Taiwan's reluctance to return to China.

  Obviously, this election campaign, entangled with the evil forces of China and the thieves that took away NT$2 trillion, is truly a complicated and difficult one.

  Lao Pao is a commentator who focuses on politics.

  Translated by Jennie Shih
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