When Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was elected president in 2000, it was hailed as a milestone for Taiwan’s burgeoning democracy. Campaigning before the election to root out “black gold” politics, Chen promised to operate a transparent and corruption-free government.
Eight years later, with Chen and his family embroiled in a corruption scandal, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been making the same promises as his predecessor. But if the last eight years have taught us anything, it is that the executive has little power to determine if meaningful anti-corruption legislation can be passed.
Presidential Office platitudes about Ma opposing corruption are therefore disingenuous. As chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Ma did little to make his party enact “sunshine” bills that would make government more transparent and corruption difficult, and even now is battling members of his party’s old guard as well as KMT legislators.
In a sign of what to expect during this legislative session, Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), speaking at a press conference last week with Executive Yuan Secretary General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川), proposed a watered-down amendment to the Statute for the Punishment of Corruption (貪污治罪條例).
The amendment states that public officials can be charged with violating the law if their total assets are found to exceed what they declared in accordance with the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law (公職人員財產申報法). But the amendment doesn’t define these cases as corruption.
Why not? What would be the reason for a public official to not fully declare his or her wealth? Perhaps Huang had Ma’s “special allowance” fund controversy in mind — a case that saw Ma hauled into court because one of his underlings failed to fully disclose the use of his boss’ special allowance.
Speaking of special allowances, the legislature continues to treat the public as distracted and stupid children. It is astounding that two years after the “special allowance” fiasco, the legislature has not passed legislation forcing public officials to account for how such funds are spent.
Without meaningful legislation, the public can only judge the KMT’s stolen assets and Chen’s money-laundering case by moral standards. But this does little to root out the cause of the problem. Public officials need to be judged by legal as well as moral standards, and this is why the sunshine bills need to be passed this legislative session. Taking a campaign donor’s money may be as morally wrong as using taxpayer funds to fly off on “government trips” abroad, but such a judgment does little to make public officials legally accountable.
Which brings us back to promises. Ma was elected on a platform to strengthen the economy and root out corruption. The former pledge is unraveling, but with a KMT-controlled legislature and executive, the Ma administration is in an ideal position to enact legislation that curbs corruption and brings seemingly all-powerful legislators into line.
The KMT has run out of excuses for not passing sunshine bills. This legislative session will speak volumes as to how willing the party is to root out corruption.
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