As January’s presidential and legislative elections slowly approach, the question still stands: How should Taiwanese voters choose their leaders?
People always say: “Vote for the good and capable candidates.”
Knowledgeable, moral and able people would be the best candidates to hold public offices. They are the best of the best. Why should people vote for anyone else? The problem is that the best personnel are hard to find.
If people go for the second-best, what kind of leaders would they end up with?
When knowledge was under the monopoly of the rich and powerful, rulers and lawmakers had to be knowledgeable and sensible.
However, in the era of an explosion in intelligence and classification, when even experts are like Ivan Pavlov’s preconditioned dogs, it might be meaningless to say how knowledgeable a politician is.
In developed nations such as the US and members of the EU, it is not common for presidents, prime ministers or lawmakers to hold a doctoral degree.
In his book The Fun of Knowledge (學問之趣味), Chinese academic Liang Qichao (梁啟超) wrote that knowledge and morality were two different things. A knowledgeable person might not necessarily have a noble character. This suggests that since the public is electing a president and lawmakers — not university professors — their morality and administrative abilities should be the most important criteria.
However, the public then faces yet another question: Which is more important, a candidate’s ability or morality?
A modern nation is not much different from a large conglomerate; their operations are similar.
Consider the case of a former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co manager who leaked confidential information to Chinese rival Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, or former Hon Hai Precision Industry Co executives who took kickbacks from the company’s suppliers, or the former Formosa Plastics Group managers who collectively took bribes. They caused considerable losses to their companies.
They were capable businesspeople in key positions who took part in the decisionmaking process. They knew about confidential techniques or were responsible for the entire purchasing process. This shows that capable people with no morality can do harm in much worse ways. From this perspective, morality followed by ability is certainly the prerequisite for political candidates.
Finally, it should be noted that without honesty and credibility, there can be no morality. Can Taiwanese tolerate politicians with no honesty and credibility? Should the public not resolutely say “No” to them?
Some might say that politicians’ abilities are more salient as they are more easily observed and quantified.
However, how can anyone possibly know whether they are honest or not, as honesty is less obvious?
One strategy is the “presumption of honesty.” Before a politician is proven to be a dishonest person, people should always presume that they are honest.
However, this still gives each politician one opportunity to fool the public.
In 2008, Taiwanese voted for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who promised to donate half of his salary if he failed to deliver on his “6-3-3” campaign pledge. He has been proven to be a liar.
In January, do Taiwanese really want to vote for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), another liar whose honesty and credibility are already bankrupt?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired professor from National Hsinchu University of Education.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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