The issue of vote-buying fills up the pages in Taiwan's media during every election campaign. In recent days, the Liberty Times has carried a series of in-depth reports on vote-buying across the nation. Everyone who cares about the development of democratic politics in Taiwan can see that even though the country has entered the democratic era, the poisonous residue left by authoritarian rule, especially the malign habit of buying votes -- thereby distorting democratic politics -- has yet to be thoroughly eradicated.
There is an old saying: "The dust will not go away if the broom does not come." Vote-buying -- the 50-year-old dirt in Taiwan's election system -- will not just disappear along with a transition of political power. Those parties and individuals who benefited from such illegal activities will simply not discover their conscience and voluntarily opt for fair competition with other parties and candidates -- unless the cost to them becomes too high. Unless the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary truly take up brooms in the task of cleaning up election culture, the Legislative Yuan will still be controlled by the gangsters and lowlifes who buy their way into it.
Local courts throughout the nation have had idealistic and enthusiastic judges who coordinate with prosecutors and the public in investigations into vote-buying. Unfortunately, under previous KMT governments, many of the investigations eventually evaporate despite all the incriminating evidence, thanks to political interference from higher-ups -- hardly surprising when one understands that vote-buying has been a key election strategy of the KMT for many years. This political interference has not only damaged the integrity of the judiciary and caused the public to lose confidence in it, but has also repeatedly harmed the morale of the judges who want to safeguard the democratic system.
After the DPP came to power, Chen Shui-bian's (
Before when such crackdowns have occuured, they ended up as little more than show -- the KMT's contemptibly insincere attempt to show foreign election observers that it really was trying to play by the rules. This time we can expect things to be different. Nevertheless, the people of Taiwan still need to help by keeping their eyes wide open and helping bring corrupt candidates and their vote-buyers to justice. By cleaning up the electoral environment Taiwan can restore the tarnished reputation of its democracy, as well as recover faith in the serious, impartial enforcement of the law.
Taiwan's election culture is like the country's rivers and lakes, suffering acute pollution during the long years of KMT rule. The legislature has become more and more inefficient, poisoned by gangsters and money politics. Lawmakers gang up to push through pork-barrel legislation while ignoring many bills based on the needs of the country and its people. Judicial officials can help save the country by keeping the December elections clean. They have the opportunity to sweep out some of the political dirt that has begrimed Taiwan's electoral system and create a brighter future for the entire nation.
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