Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) recently made a truly surprising comment when he said he hoped former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) — recently indicted on corruption charges — does not end up dead overseas like former Chung Shing Bank chairman Wang Yu-yun (王玉雲), who, before his death, called Wu a liar — as has Lee. Wu’s comments offer a stark contrast between himself and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has always said how much he respects and reveres Lee. Wu also said that Lee is the godfather of “black gold” politics, going so far as to ask whether black gold politics even existed in the days of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
When Lee was involved in politics, black gold was indeed rampant. However, black gold originated from the retinue system that existed between the central and local governments set up under the rule of Chiang and of his father, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). Under this system, the central government that the Chiangs watched over were for the most part free of corruption. However, as far as local government is concerned, the two presidents used factions that were in with both the law and the underworld as specialized types of organizations for handling leaders of the democracy and dangwai (“outside the party”) movements. In the space of just a few decades, local councils have become almost totally controlled by gangsters or those with links to organized crime.
After Taiwan’s democratization, these local councilors were promoted to representatives at the central level and black gold became rampant throughout Taiwan. It should be repeated that the cause of black gold politics was the retinue system that existed between the central and local governments during the two Chiangs’ rule, while black gold in Lee’s central government was the effect.
Wu has been very vocal in criticizing Lee for black gold politics, but is the Ma administration really standing up against corruption?
In a climate of black gold, elections are won through electoral fraud and vote buying. Following the Jhongli Incident in 1977, poll fraud became too risky, so politicians returned more strongly than ever to vote buying. Therefore, an important way to tackle black gold politics is to crack down on vote buying.
In recent years, many prosecutors have been investigating vote buying and trying to stamp out the practice. From December 2008 to May last year, 26 legislators, councilors and township and village leaders belonging to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were indicted on vote buying charges. After a series of legislative by-elections, the KMT found itself in serious trouble. Therefore, just as Ma’s assistant began to get vocal in accusing Lee of black gold politics, it was decided that Taiwan’s leading investigator into vote buying, Hsin Tai-chao (邢泰釗), chief prosecutor at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, would be removed from his position and transferred to the frontier region of Kinmen. This is an age-old stratagem aimed at getting rid of unwanted people by seemingly promoting them when in fact they are being demoted. This was a move to essentially freeze Hsin’s attempts to stop vote buying.
The Judicial Reform Foundation, prosecutor associations and grassroots prosecutors were all in uproar over this issue. They even issued a statement asking how, as prosecutors, they could fail to be furious. Faced with this, the Ma administration came up with a series of often mutually contradictory or nonsensical responses. One reason was that when investigating vote buying, Hsin did not follow the principle of procuratorial integration. This reason was too straightforward, so the Ma administration later changed its story to say that it wanted to help Hsin gain more experience. However, how are we supposed to believe that Hsin would gain experience by transferring him from the complex jurisdiction of Kaohisung, with its 2.75 million people, to Kinmen, with its population of only 70,000?
Hsin had an outstanding record and, according to common practice, he should have gone straight from the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office to the position of chief prosecutor at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. At the least, he should have been made a chief of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors’ Office in Hualien or Tainan.
With Ma facing heavy criticism over this issue, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and Public Prosecutor--General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) said this move was a non---conventional transfer because chief prosecutors in district offices have a term of four years. However, Hsin had only taken on his position as chief of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office in July last year.
In the end, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) let the real reason slip when he said that as Hsin had spent so much time and effort in investigating and wiping out corruption last year, the minister had decided to let him “take a rest” in the interests of his health.
Fifteen years ago, when Ma was minister of justice, he was forced to resign by those in the KMT because of his efforts in investigating and wiping out corruption. Now that Ma is president, Hsin has been told to “take a rest” because of his efforts in wiping out corruption. The Ma administration is facing something of a crisis in terms of its re-election hopes, but is it really necessary to rely on a return to black gold politics to protect its re-election chances?
In 2008, prosecutors were especially vigorous in investigating cases and public trust in them rose at that time. According to a survey on social credibility conducted by a group that promoted individual and social ethics, prosecutors ranked in seventh place, ahead of judges, who came in at 11th place. However, since 2008, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel has handled cases involving officials from the pan-green camp and not the pan-blue camp, and broke the law by disclosing details of the investigations and leaking crucial diplomatic secrets in detail to attack those with different political opinions. With this, and their failure this year to oust “dinosaur judges,” public trust in prosecutors has plummeted to a ranking of 15th, just one place ahead of judges. If it weren’t for the fact that prosecutors have been assiduously investigating vote buying, the situation would be even worse than this.
Has the Ma government used political manipulation to relegate a chief prosecutor? Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) responded by saying that administrative departments responded to this case and that the government would not be commenting on the issue for the time being.
Ma is indeed a true expert in not letting things stick to him, which is why he has earned the nickname “Teflon Ma.”
Ma’s police once went after anyone who flew the national flag of the Republic of China when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taiwan and this pleased Chen immensely. However, Ma was of course not the one who gave out these orders to the police. When the prosecutors indicted Lee, Ma was quick to say that there was no way he would ever interfere with judicial cases. Wu’s cursing of Lee also had nothing to do with Ma, who has always emphasized being refined, cultured and polite as well as having immense respect for Lee. Hsin’s relegation to Kinmen ostensibly has nothing to do with Ma either.
Ma is always able to get the best of everything and never has to dirty his hands. What a lucky guy he is. It of course also follows that black gold was all Lee’s doing and that Hsin’s relegation is a standard procedure conducted within the Ministry of Justice. It is as clear as day that Ma will always get the best out of all situations and continue to keep his squeaky-clean image intact.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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