The Presidential Office announced on Friday that first lady Wu Shu-jen (
The controversy shows that the public imposes a high moral standard on the president and his family. It should not be forgotten that the president and his family are not legally obligated to place their assets or property in trust. President Chen volunteered to do so, and that was a laudable move. He set a precedent that should be followed by all future presidents in the absence of a law making that move mandatory.
However, the current uproar over Wu's mutual fund demonstrates that the placement of assets in trust is not enough to satisfy the public. Today's voters demand the elimination of any conflicts of interest or potential for insider trading by the president and his family. This means that even though the first lady may have done nothing to compromise her integrity, voters don't want there to be any door left open for unethical and immoral conduct.
They are right to impose such a high ethical standard. After all, though Chen and his family may have integrity, the same may not be true of his successors. But in the absence of relevant laws or standards to follow, there are ambiguities and uncertainties about what should be considered "improper" conduct. At least, that is the case until an issue becomes the center of public attention and criticisms pour in. By then, the damage has already been done.
For example, should the trust fund manager or trustee be allowed to actively manage and invest assets and properties placed in trust? Theoretically, it wouldn't seem to be improper if the president and the first lady left decisions regarding fund management and investment activities entirely up to the trustee.
However, can the general public genuinely believe in the independence of the trustee? That doesn't seem likely in this country, whose long history and culture of under-the-table dealings have made voters extremely cynical. Complicating the situation is the fact that financial institutions, including the management company that held the first family's assets in trust, are highly regulated by the government.
There is also the question of whether investments in mutual funds should be considered speculative investment activities -- and so be banned when assets and properties are placed in trust. Everyone knows that mutual funds invest in a wide variety of stocks and bonds. Every mutual fund is then in turn open to investment by the general public. In other parts of the world, it would be hard to imagine that the professional independence of a mutual fund manager would be questioned just because important political figures were among the fund's many investors. But that's exactly what has happened in Taiwan.
Imposing a high moral standard on the first family is a good thing. However, one cannot help but hope that the same standard be applied to other politicians as well.
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