Editorial: One service Soong can do

"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Or so goes the pledge Americans take when they take the witness stand in court. Truth is hard to come by nowadays outside of the courts, though. Politicians are especially economical with the stuff, and have finely honed skills in deception and camouflage. But even politicians know that they don't have to fool everyone all of the time. A limited amount of carefully employed deceit is enough to get them re-elected.

Currently everyone is clamoring to find out the truth about where the money in the bank account of James Soong's (宋楚瑜) son came from and for what purpose it was put there. It's a simple question, but Soong has done his utmost to evade the hard questions surrounding this affair. His intention appears to be to evade answers, mislead the public as to his motives and generally cover up his actions. This might be reprehensible, as the KMT is noisily telling us. But where did Soong perfect his dark arts? As the KMT's principal apologist in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Soong was the purveyor of lies both big and small for the KMT. When a US professor visited Taiwan in 1981 to participate in the autopsy of Professor Chen Wen-cheng (3?憰?/CHINESE>), who died under suspicious circumstances, Government Information Office Director James Soong denied a press visa to AP reporter Tina Chou, claiming that the foreign professor was merely "viewing the body" of Chen, and not taking part in the autopsy.

Later, when opposition legislators criticized him for restricting the freedom of the press, Soong, in a blatant attempt to avoid the issue, started into a long, nationalistic harangue about the the humiliation that China has suffered at the hands of Western imperialist powers since the Opium War. Soong imbibed his evasion tactics at the KMT's teat.

This is not to diminish the scandal raging around Soong. The mysterious and unexplained appearance of more than US$3 million in the bank account of a senior party official would be a scandal in any democratic country.

Nor is it to be thought that this is a personal attack on Soong. There are serious questions outstanding about his integrity and he must be able to answer them if he is to be taken seriously as a political leader.

Many have questioned where the money came from, and where it went. Granted, some of the accusations may have been emotional, but they are based on rational suspicions. Nonetheless, Soong has refused to answer any questions about his conduct, shattering his carefully molded moral image into a million pieces.

The truth about the scandal will eventually see the light of day, but we feel that the scandal is not only a reflection on James Soong, but on the entire KMT. The finances of Taiwan's ruling party are a mess. If Soong's scandal hadn't been blown open, no one would have known about the whereabouts of the NT$100 million plus change that mysteriously "disappeared" from the party. This latest scandal is only one drop in the brackish pool of corruption and money politics dammed up in the KMT.

The scandal has become the turning point for the presidential elections. Soong's edge over the other candidates is fast receding, and is likely to continue to do so. But Soong could still make a positive contribution to Taiwan, if he were to drop out of the race and expose the money politics within the KMT.