The worsening of black gold politics has hollowed out Taiwan's democracy and caused political degeneration. This has significantly tarnished the image of Taiwan.
To destroy the cycle of fear and benefits which is the foundation of black gold, we must strengthen our government, the market and society simultaneously. The goal of reconstructing our government is to enhance its strength. This may be accomplished in four ways:
1. Creating autonomous government staffed by neutral officials and clearly defined boundaries for lobbying.
2. Creating an independent judiciary and establishing broader criteria for what constitutes election bribery and strictly enforcing laws against bribery.
3. Making the legislative procedure more neutral, prohibit the participation of mafia in elections and making politics more transparent.
4. Strengthening party politics, promoting quality competition and enforcing accountability for the actions of political parties.
The goal of reconstructing the market mechanism is to establish fair competition. This may be achieved in the following three ways:
1. Promoting economic freedoms, eliminating protectionism and eradicating special perks.
2. Reducing the number of government regulations and stopping channels for lobbying to allow the unconstrained action of market forces.
3. Strengthening the transparency of policies and promoting fair competition to deprive black gold of opportunities to establish market monopolies.
The goal of reconstructing our society is to strengthen civic self-determination. This can be accomplished in the following two ways:
1. Making more government information available to the public and providing people with better education about government so that they are capable of keeping a watch on black gold.
2. Strengthening community self-determination and implementing grassroots democracy so that people may work against black gold.
It is only through the eradication of black gold politics that Taiwan has a chance of reestablishing the real values of democracy and healing the dysfunctions of the system, so that Taiwan's democracy can truly become an example to Asia.
Julian Kuo ( 郭正亮) is an associate professor of political science at the Soochow University.
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