When Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the US, wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, he might very well have been prescient of the problems Taiwanese democracy is facing at the moment.
It all started when gadfly legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) -- in their partisan haste to oust President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) -- opened up the Pandora's box of misappropriating discretionary funds, prevalent in various levels of the government.
But, when the public probing turned bipartisan by ensnaring, besides Chen, KMT Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
As another relic of the KMT era, these so-called special funds are originally designed to support the traditional Chinese imperialistic value of government officials being paternalistic. Over time, special funds became personal piggy banks for unscrupulous officials.
It should be noted that, although there might be controversy surrounding the justification for the existence of special funds, there is no doubt that the funds are intended for public purposes -- not for officials' pockets.
This distinction isn't lost on everybody either, as in fact there appears to be no shortage of chiefs or deputies who have either diligently followed the letter of the law or found their special funds inadequate to meet legitimate needs, let alone winding their way into individuals' coffers.
It then becomes a moot point whether or not the system is at fault.
Nonetheless, there are those who seek to reshape existing laws to shield the wrongdoings of the privileged few, a self-serving exercise when they themselves belong to that class. The outrage might be scarcely lessened by the knowledge that similar transgressions have been legally prosecuted in the past.
Besides, in a capitalist society, justice tends to serve those of means better than those without. Given the growing economic disparity in Taiwanese society, further institutional unfairness -- such as tailor-made laws that are being retroactively applied -- would only amplify the one-sidedness of special privilege and rub against the very grain of the democratic principle of equal protection of the laws.
Moreover, the notion that the spectacle of a herd of unsavory officials being dragged in front of the law would destabilize society reeks of elitism and is utterly absurd.
On the contrary, the practice of advocating elasticity of the laws to suit the need of one class of citizens, if left unchecked, could lead Taiwan into lawlessness and weaken its democracy.
Instead, public energy should be channeled into overturning a culture of special privilege and ushering in an era where people would pursue fairness and justice as the central values in Taiwan.
Rectified along the way should be KMT past infractions, including the problem of its ill-gotten assets, a satisfactory settlement of which would cleanse Taiwan of its nastiest problems -- including the cover-up of truth on the 228 Incident as well as the subsequent White Terror and the 18 percent interest on public pensions, the latter an open bribery contrived to foster an iron-clad voting block for the KMT.
It's unfortunate that past and present officials by the hundreds -- or thousands by some accounts -- could become entangled in this inadvertently-cast dragnet. It would be the biggest blessing in disguise for Taiwan, however, if a bloodless revolution through judicial processes were to materialize.
That's because reform would beget more reform until Taiwan is swept clean of the KMT culture that lingers like a perennial dead weight hindering the progress of the society.
Only then can Taiwan ascend to a level capable of withstanding the unrelenting onslaught of a belligerent China in the decades ahead.
Huang Jei-hsuan
California
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