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EDITORIAL: Playing favorites for party favors

Anyone looking for an example of how not to practice administrative neutrality could do worse than to look to the Taipei City Government.

The city staged an extravagant, six-hour New Year's Eve party in front of Taipei City Hall at a cost of NT$20 million (US$630,900). No doubt, the splendid party, attended by A-list singers and capped by a magnificent fireworks display at Taipei 101, boosted the capital's visibility among global TV viewers.

However, before the countdown started, a "mystery guest" appeared on stage: the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) presidential hopeful Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). Lest the public mistake Ma's appearance for a political ploy, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said Ma was there in his capacity as "former mayor of Taipei."

Earlier this month, Ma accompanied Hau in making the rounds to thank city police officers and staffers for working on Lunar New Year's Eve. When asked by the media whether the city government had violated administrative neutrality in inviting Ma, the KMT candidate said he was there in his capacity as "an old friend," and not to canvass votes.

Ma is not the only KMT candidate who has appeared with the mayor. Hau also invited KMT vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) in his capacity as former premier, to join him on Wednesday evening to light up the city's Lantern Fair.

It's disturbing that Hau has taken advantage of many of the capital's activities to serve his partisan interests. And Ma, who strongly advocated administrative neutrality during his tenure as Taipei mayor, has fallen short of his own standards once more.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) wasn't made to feel as welcome in Taipei after his stint as mayor. In 2000, when Chen -- who had just started his campaign for the presidency -- visited a police precinct in Beitou District (北投), then mayor Ma deemed the visit "inappropriate." Beitou police station chief Wu Cheng-chi (吳振吉) was subsequently reprimanded by Ma for failing to maintain administrative neutrality.

But the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is equally guilty of partisanship. DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was among those present at the New Year's Eve party in Kaohsiung, supposedly in his capacity as former mayor of the city.

Such brazen displays of partisanship highlight the lack of a legal precedent to clearly define and enforce administrative neutrality. Maybe neither the candidates nor the officials are to blame, for at the root of the problem is the lack of a law to regulate interaction between candidates, officials and local government-sponsored activities.

With the new legislative session beginning today, what better time -- less than 30 days before the presidential election -- to deliberate and pass an executive proposal on promoting administrative neutrality for civil servants?

That way, when government employees attend press conferences held by political parties and denounce government policies -- as Armaments Bureau Director-General Wu Wei-rong (吳偉榮) did on Wednesday -- and are sacked for their troubles (as Wu richly deserves), they will have no cause for complaint.
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