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James Soong running out of time

`The scandals help to keep Soong in the limelight, but more importantly they provide him with a way to suggest his leadership qualities in a time of crisis.'

Ever since Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the opposition has regularly called for him to step down. It's all they can suggest. Despite a majority in the Legislative Yuan, they have yet to put forward any long term constructive programs; instead, they have indulged in pursuing one unproven scandal after another.

Taiwan's press is scandal hungry; guilt by accusation and rumor has become a way of life and shameless legislators take advantage of this failing and play it to the maximum. It is the main means by which these otherwise incompetent legislators can maintain a place in the limelight.

This creates a situation in Taiwan where politicians posture and demand that the person they slander must step down before the courts have a chance to prove anything.

If they would let rule of law and the courts take their proper course, the scandals would evaporate and political mileage would be lost.

Today's scandal of the month involves the allegations of insider trading against not the president but his son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘). Still for the scandal mongers, it is the president that must step down.

Go a step further however in the latest scandal and examine why the man who is trying hardest to claim leadership of the moral high ground in this campaign is James Soong (宋楚瑜), head of the People First Party (PFP).

Why would James Soong, a man with his own long history of involvement in corruption, seek this moral high ground?

James Soong is 64 years old. He wants to be president of Taiwan, but many people stand in his way. The next elections are in 2008, by which time he will be 66.

Soong has not had a job since 1998. He still wants to be president of Taiwan having ran for the presidency in 2000, and lost by 3 percentage points. The Chung Hsing Bills Finance Company scandal and a missing US$ 12 million may have cost him very dear.

Soong ran for vice president under Lien Chan (連戰) in 2004. Together they lost out by less than one percent of the votes cast. Soong, however, cannot afford to run as vice president with anyone else in 2008 by which time he will be 70 and too old to run for president in 2012.

Is his age such an important consideration for Soong? The efforts he goes to to keep his hair dyed jet black and his sensitivity regarding questions about his age indicates he thinks it is.

Soong does not need to be president for the money. He has been living comfortably despite not having had a job since 1998 and despite the fact that he has run in and financed two losing presidential campaigns.

Such comfortable living may be due to the fact that he has the reserves of the unreturned US$12 million (NT$384 million). Perhaps it is because of the high budget, pork barrel, and beneficiary-return days when he was provincial governor.

It could even be that politicians get a set amount of tax money for every vote cast for them and Soong is head of the popular but slowly dwindling PFP. But Soong does not need money.

What does Soong need? Soong needs power and the limelight it brings. He needs the top position of power in much the same way that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) needed it to affirm his sense of personal destiny and righteousness.

Soong could have run for the Legislature and won, but that would have only made him first among equals in his party. He chose not to.

Soong could even now run for Mayor of Taipei but he will not. He has only threatened to do so to let the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) know it must reckon with him. At this point in his career, Soong will only settle for the presidency.

Who stands in Soong's way for the presidency? The biggest challenge is not Chen but the young and popular Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT.

Soong must first dispose of Ma before 2008, yet he must do it in a way that doesn't alienate younger KMT supporters whose votes and perhaps campaign funds he will need. Time is running out for Soong.

Ma's threat to Soong comes from his clean image and popularity with the general public. Soong must make Ma appear weak and not yet ready to take the reins of the country.

By positioning himself at the forefront of those claiming the moral high ground over the recent scandals involving Chen, Soong can not only deflect attention away from his own sordid past but challenge Ma's status.

The scandals help to keep Soong in the limelight, but more importantly they provide him with a way to suggest his leadership qualities in a time of crisis.

Ma with his legal background had been willing to let the courts pursue justice in their normal way but Soong pressured him out of that position. Now Ma and Soong are competing to take the lead in the moralizing campaign.

Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is a different threat for Soong; he is competing with Ma to be the KMT presidential candidate but Wang is not one to compete on emotional grounds. Wang must be disposed of in a different way.

Wang could be threatened with the fact that many in the pan-blue alliance don't trust his background as an ethnic Taiwanese, and then he could be enticed with the Vice Presidential position and potential right of succession.

The candidates from the pan-green coalition are natural opponents for Soong, but the least threat to him. They can be tarnished by their party links to Chen during the recent scandals. Soong has even hoped to split their ranks by calling on Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) to join the recall campaign, under Soong's leadership of course.

Chen does not stand in Soong's way. He will be gone in 2008; his long history as a whipping boy for the pan-blue attacks can be used to his advantage.

Chen has plenty of enemies in the pan-blue camp who always wanted to see him brought down. Soong will have no trouble finding allies there.

For those with memories of Soong's GIO days when he was the main cover-up man for corruption, his staking of a claim to the moral high ground is absolutely outrageous.

For those with shorter memories, his deals as provincial governor and the Chung Hsing scandal of 2000 make his position still more strange, but Taiwanese voters have short memories.

The focus of many people may be on the twists and turns of the latest scandal but long-term observers see this as only a sideshow.

The real drama is behind the scenes as candidates jockey for position in the 2008 presidential race. It is here that one sees Soong's wheeling and dealing as time runs out. Will his wiliness be up to pulling it off?

Jerome Keating is a Taiwan-based writer.　
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