Editorial: Pocket-lining? Now, a silver lining

Yesterday, the Legislative Yuan finally passed the long-awaited Law Governing Political Donations (政治獻金法). This is especially significant in the wake of yesterday's press conference by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Sheng Fu-hsiung (沈富雄), which shed light on the bizarre and fanatical quest by the media to find out whether Sheng accompanied former Tuntex chairman Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪) to first lady Wu Shu-chen's (吳淑珍) residence in 1994. From the beginning, the sole focus of attention regarding Chen's accusations against Wu should have been whether or not bribes had been offered and accepted during the alleged visit.

In the absence of a political donation law, making political campaign donations is legal, unless the politician receiving the money promises to do and in fact does something illegal in return -- which would constitute bribery.

Judging how badly Chen Yu-hao has fared in the four years since President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president -- going from one of the 10 richest men in Taiwan to a fugitive in China with between 50 billion and 60 billion NT dollars of bad loans in Taiwan -- there is very little evidence to support the idea that Chen Shui-bian and Wu ever accepted any bribes from him. Moreover, even Chen Yu-hao has conceded that he did not ask for anything in return for his donations nor did Wu or Chen Shui-bian promise anything.

Under circumstances, it is truly puzzling that it seems to matter whether Chen Yu-hao ever visited Wu in her home and whether she in fact gave him a tour of her bathroom.

It is no more relevant than what you or I had for dinner last night.

This entire charade has turned into a math contest between Chen Yu-hao and Wu. If Chen Yu-hao indeed visited Wu, it proves nothing more than that Wu is a forgetful person, that she spoke too quickly or that she did not tell the truth about something that has no real relevance.

Sheng absolutely right in saying during yesterday's press conference that this election campaign's focus has gotten blurred and has been sidetracked by trivial matters. Sadly, far too many social resources and too much time have been wasted on this fiasco.

One for this was the absence of a political donation law, which would have given more concrete guidelines to the public about what kinds of donations are legal and which are illegal. Without it, many people have been inclined to associate the acceptance of political donations with wrongdoing and corruption.

Under newly enacted political donations law, each candidate can accept political donations only within a certain period of time before the election -- a year for presidential candidates and 10 months for legislative candidates.

This will reduce the likelihood of bribery disguised as political donations.

Moreover, the new law sets a cap on donations -- NT$300,000 from an individual, NT$2 million from a private group and NT$3 million from a business enterprise -- which should serve to limit undue influence from any particular donor.

Moreover, any individual candidate or political party seeking campaign donations must open a special account designated for the purpose and also file reports with relevant government entities. The purpose of this requirement is to establish transparency for giving and accepting donations.

If anything good has come out of the farce involving Chen Yu-hao, it is the public pressure that has resulted in the passage of the political donations law.