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Put leash on political organizations

Several secrets have come to light amid the tumultuous debate about the historical merits and demerits of Soong Mayling (宋美齡) following her recent death. Among those secrets are the NT$70 billion in assets allegedly owned by the National Women's League of the ROC (婦聯會), which was chaired by Soong for a long time. Its entire lack of financial transparency, however, has given rise to concern.

According to a Nov. 2 report in the Liberty Times, the Ministry of the Interior's civil affairs department, which is in charge of such matters, explained that the league was registered as a "political organization" under the Civic Organizations Law (人民團體法) and that the budgets of political organizations are excluded from government supervision required by Article 33 and Article 34 of the law. Except for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), none of Taiwan's 30-plus political organizations and 102 political parties submit their budgets, final accounts and balance sheets to the authorities for review.

This situation is unthinkable in a country under the rule of law.

In contrast, social and professional organizations established under the Civic Organizations Law have their freedom of association restricted by the authorities by way of an "approval system."

The authorities have also compiled nit-picking rules covering everything from names, charters, agendas, elections and recalls, to the handling of financial matters. They sit high up in the air and instruct people on how to manage the internal affairs of an organization.

Political organizations and political parties, however, are only required to send some documents to the authorities for review. Besides, once established, they apparently do not need to undergo any supervision. It is no wonder that a "Fumin Party" (富民黨) resembling a Ponzi scheme has popped up recently. Unless the Ministry of Finance cracks down hard on them, the Civic Organizations Law will become a haven for dirty business, allowing "political" organizations to commit all sorts of crimes.

With this unreasonable situation repeatedly coming under criticism, the interior ministry has recently submitted amendments to the Civic Organization Law to the Executive Yuan. The amended law would no longer divide organizations into three categories -- social, professional and political -- but would treat all organizations equally in terms of financial supervision. We can say that this is a direction in accord with the trend of democracy, but it may stir controversy between the ruling and opposition parties. Especially when it comes to regulations on political parties, the Executive Yuan needs to make up its mind on whether to enact a separate "political parties law." Otherwise, its attempts to resolve the matter will further entangle it, and will not necessarily resolve the chaotic situation of political organizations possessing numerous privileges.

However, before the law is amended or new ones enacted, we call on the so-called political organizations and political parties to accept public scrutiny instead of continuing to hide behind the shield of privileges.

They should know that Article 44 of the Civic Organizations Law stipulates, "Political organizations are organizations established by citizens of the Republic of China on the basis of shared democratic political concepts and with the objectives of helping shape political awareness among the citizens and promoting political participation by citizens." Article 45 adds that "the objective of recommending candidates to participate in elections for government office" is a key factor in the establishment of political parties.

Since the objectives are so lofty, most of these political organizations and political parties must have been established by clean and upstanding people. Then why don't they voluntarily disclose their expenditures and financial information to win public credibility?

Ever since martial law was lifted in Taiwan, the public has been discovering by the day that there were too many privileged nooks and crannies with hidden contrivances during the authoritarian era. An important function of democratization is to shed light on these corners. Supervision can no longer be fobbed off with the contention that "it has always been like this." What is more unfortunate is that it is human nature to love privilege. Therefore, organizations that are particularly close to power -- such as political organizations and political parties -- are frequently unwilling to let the sun shine on them. They would rather defend darkness and privileges.

In light of the women's league incident, the executive, legislative and judicial branches should quickly come up with more appropriate measures to regulate political organizations and political parties while easing the restrictions on social and professional organizations. They should also introduce autonomous power into civic non-governmental organizations and promote "social sunshine laws" so that the distribution of social resources may be more compatible with fairness and justice.

Ku Chung-hwa is a professor of sociology at National Chengchi University and an executive committee member of the Taipei Society.

Translated by Francis Huang
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