Killing the golden goose of politics

James Soong's (宋楚瑜) performance in his financial scandal can hardly be useful material for a course in democratic politics, whether he is elected or not.

Political figures can claim they don't need to steal a penny from the government because they can make NT$1 billion or more from elections alone. This kind of bumper harvest can only make appointed officials sigh with envy.

When this kind of scandal occurs in democratic countries, the candidate involved can only do one thing: drop out of the campaign. Fortunately, Taiwan is not yet squarely on the democratic path, so candidates invol-ved in scandals can defend them-selves with sophistry. Their self-contradictions may border on the bizarre, but they can still win considerable support as long as they do not admit to their faults. This is a big encouragement for anyone with political ambitions.

We can see from Soong's case that elections can be a golden goose for candidates. It is more than likely that Soong's NT$1 billion-plus mystery funds are some-how election related. If one can legally make such astronomical sums of money through elections alone, who would need to sully themselves with bribery, for example?

During the five years and nine months he was provincial governor, Soong went on a spending spree with public resources, scattering money around Taiwan like confetti, building personal connections and even supporting some private enterprises.

When elections come, donations flood in from corporations in the form of money and manpower. Taiwan's election culture and money politics allow candidates to get elected and make a big fortune out of elections at the same time. They do not need to report their income or pay taxes. On the contrary, taxpayers even have to pay them a NT$30 subsidy for each vote they get.

This kind of money culture did not begin with Soong, nor is it likely to end with him. But Soong has successfully built a public image of a clean reformer. In this respect, few can rival Soong in his state-of-the-art performance.

The Control Yuan's report on its investigation into the financial scandal is grounded on concrete realities and ruthlessly negates Soong's arguments. But Soong turned around and thanked the Control Yuan for returning to him the "justice" he was supposedly robbed of. Soong's response defies common sense, but it was a successful strategy, for it has obfuscated reality and stabilized his public confidence ratings. But Soong's clever strategy could very well be his doom.

Strategically, Soong needs to build himself an image of a poor, clean politician to differentiate himself from KMT candidate Lien Chan (宋楚瑜). Soong therefore must pretend to be too poverty-stricken to buy a toilet in the Hone Shee Villa (鴻禧山莊) while his daughter can only take a bus when she goes out, and so on. After the scandal exploded his mythical bubbles, he turned around and claimed the properties in question -- worth huge sums -- were his own and nobody else's business. Not surprisingly, some have compared Soong's brazenness to the thick skin of a rhinoceros.

US President Bill Clinton denied he had ever used marijuana because, he said, he did not inhale. He also denied violating US laws because he was in England at the time. His response to the Monica Lewinsky scandal was essentially more of the same.