Editorial: Stamping out sycophancy

Fifty years of KMT corruption was what drove Taiwan's voters to opt for a new government in last year's presidential election. However, after just 10 months in office, the DPP government appears to have acquired many of the KMT's bad habits -- without that party's skill at concealment. The KMT's shrewd masters of chicanery must be sniggering into their tea cups as they watch the DPP's clumsy dabbling in their art.

News that the government may replace Wang Chung-yu (王鍾渝), chairman of China Steel Corp (中鋼), with one of its own men is the latest tempest in a teapot. Such a replacement is not a problem in itself. Any government has the right to replace officials, including board members at state-owned enterprises or those in which it holds a controlling interest. Taiwan is not unique in this regard. Washington saw a round of musical chairs involving tens of thousands of civil servants after George W. Bush replaced Bill Clinton. Americans are used to this quadrennial event and little fuss is made in US political circles and the media.

Being a "fledgling" democracy, Taiwan scarcely has any experience in large-scale personnel reshuffles -- but this is something it will gradually get used to. The DPP has already appointed Lai Kuo-chou (賴國洲) and Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝) to head Taiwan Television Enterprise (台視). It has also appointed Christine Tsung (宗才怡) as president of China Airlines (華航). Even though political considerations were certainly a factor in those appointments, the candidates' reputations for professionalism made them generally acceptable.

The previous KMT government appointed Wang, who has served as China Steel chairman for five years. The company has performed fairly well under his leadership, but few would find fault with a proposal to replace him -- as long as the company's board agrees to it. As a political appointee, Wang cannot complain about being replaced after a transition of power. What the public needs to watch for is the professional qualifications of his replacement. Political affiliation should be a secondary concern. The same is true with the upcoming board elections at Chinese Petroleum (中油) and Taipower (台電).

Apart from professionalism, another important principle is legality. Jerome Chen (陳建隆) was the envy of everyone in Taiwan's financial circles when he was transferred from the Bank of Kaohsiung to head the First Commercial Bank (第一銀行). He was criticized for his DPP background, but that could not stop him from taking over the post.

Recently however, Chen sent letters to bank depositors, urging them -- in his capacity as bank chairman -- to support Charles Chiang (江昭儀), a member of the bank's board and an Executive Yuan official, in the upcoming DPP primary. Chen's letter has drawn severe criticism from the Legislative Yuan.

Chen's misuse of bank funds to curry the favor of a superior is incompatible with a banker's professionalism. Whether Chen has violated the law by using client information for political purposes remains to be investigated. But he cannot excuse himself by saying such a misstep will never happen again. Such abuse of power is exactly why voters dumped the KMT last year. Government reforms and a crackdown on "black gold" politics have always been the DPP's rallying points. How can the party answer to its supporters if it condones such behavior?