Mon, Mar 03, 2003 page8

• Editorial: Follow the money

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  The latest accusations about James Soong claim he was the recipient of US$400 million in kickbacks from the French company Thomson CSF in return for Taiwan's purchase of six Lafayette frigates in 1991. This paper has never made any secret of its doubts about Soong's honesty; there are still far too many unresolved questions concerning the Chunghsing Bills Finance scandal for that -- the property investments in California, why Soong told so many different stories, why he would put money in a bank account in his son's name ...

  But we do not expect that even Soong is capable of pocketing US$400 million himself. If the allegations by former French foreign minster Roland Dumas turn out to be true, then it is a fair assumption that Soong was simply the bagman, the man who picked up the kickback money to then spread it around among the many outstretched sweaty palms of the KMT. The frigate scandal was a scam on such a huge scale that there are probably few in the upper echelons of the KMT at the time who did not have their snouts in the Thomson trough.

  In this sense then, the Dumas allegations do not so much impugn Soong's good name -- partly of course because he doesn't have one, but we will let that pass for the moment -- as much as they remind us that the Lafayette scandal has still never been fully dealt with.

  Almost a year ago Minister of Defense Tang Yao-ming told the legislature's defense committee that the ongoing rumors, suspicions and allegations were a burden for the military and that this issue needed to be settled. We also saw, last year, some navy officers charged with corruption over the Lafayette deal. But these were small fry, certainly not the main recipients of US$400 million of French largesse. A Control Yuan report was released almost exactly a year ago. At the time we were told that it was comprehensive and was being forwarded to the Supreme Court Prosecutor General's Office. We looked forward to some major indictments being handed down. What we saw last year were a number of lower-level officers accused of not following the proper bureaucratic procedures. This seems to be putting the flimsy cart of how paper pushers pushed paper before the rather muscular equine of, as Deep Throat so memorably advised, following the money.

  The Lafayette scandal is not a military scandal, it is a political scandal. The decision to buy the frigates was taken at the highest government levels. The money paid by Thomson was not given to obscure military officers. It was given to a very senior official; the secretary-general of the ruling party, says Dumas, thereby fingering Soong. Perhaps he means the secretary-general of some other branch of government -- the Cabinet or the Presidential Office, says the PFP. After all, they reason with nauseating condescension, he's French, maybe he doesn't know Taiwan's system.

  Well, maybe he doesn't, which is why it is important now to send a team to France to interview Dumas and find out exactly what he knows and how he knows it. But it is clear from his remarks that the payments were funneled through a very senior official and were destined for the highest levels of government. And remember, this is not French money, it is our money. The cost of the bribes were simply appended to the bill for the frigates to be paid by Taiwan taxpayers. What it involves is a breach of trust at the highest level. Yet no officials have even been named let alone charged as a result of the so-called investigation. Why is the DPP government so averse to pushing this case? We can understand why the KMT wouldn't want a real investigation. But who exactly is the DPP trying to protect?
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