Looking down the corridor leading to KMT Legislator Liao Hwu-peng's (廖福本) research office at the Legislative Yuan, where prosecutors last Wednesday attempted to search for bogus stocks that Liao allegedly possessed, Sun Chen-yung (孫千詠) found the political drama before her eyes diverting.
"I am curious about the move. It's intriguing," said Sun, assistant to KMT Legislator Chen Shei-saint (陳學聖), in a corridor jammed with armed police and cameramen.
But Sun's counterparts working for Liao may find the prosecutors' high-profile move alarming.
One of Liao's assistants, identified only by his surname, Chao, is to be summoned this week for questioning as prosecutors further investigate Liao's alleged involvement in the selling of bogus Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp shares.
Liao's other two assistants, named Chang and Hsieh, have already been subpoenaed for their alleged trading of subscription rights of as-yet-unissued shares in fixed-line telecom companies for a handsome profit.
Liao has claimed that both Chang and Hsieh were his "tenants" rather than his assistants in the legislature and he had no knowledge of their affairs.
Sources inside the legislature tell a different story.
"Chang and Hsieh might have been instructed by Liao to resell stock warrants," said a senior assistant in the legislature who refused to be named.
"Or they might be so-called `lunch box assistants' (便當助理) who pursue personal profit by making use of lawmakers' names although they don't actually work for the lawmakers as their assistants," the source said.
Although the reality beneath the veneer of Liao's case remains unexplained, lawmakers and their assistants have agreed on one thing: In Taiwan, where lawmakers are sometimes lawbreakers, rogue assistants can browbeat officials and interest groups by virtue of their close proximity to power.
`Lunch box assistants'
The so-called "lunch box assistant" is an aide who receives no salary from a lawmaker, but simply uses the lawmakers' name for his or her own profit.
"Figuratively speaking, they have to bring their own lunch box [because they are outside of any formal relationship to the legislator or the Legislative Yuan]. For the sake of their own business, they are engaged in lobbying government agencies for their own advantage, for which they use certain lawmakers' names -- with or without the lawmakers' approval," said a lawmaker's assistant, under the condition of anonymity, who has worked in the legislature for seven years.
The unspoken consensus between such aides and lawmakers who are in the know is crystal clear, sources said. Once the under-the-table deal is done, the lawmakers in question can skim about 30 percent of the net profit from the deal. But if any illegal deal unravels, the legislators can openly state their innocence and ignorance of the way their name has been used, sources said.
Liao Hwu-peng himself was so inundated by the large numbers of people calling themselves his assistants in order to conduct illegal lobbying that in April 1998 he listed the names of his those who really were his assistants in a national newspaper.
But such a move has produced undesirable repercussions, admitted Hsieh Hwai-shuh (
`The fox borrows the awe of the tiger'
Another case unraveled by People First Party legislator Chen Chao-jung (
Lee Chung-ling (李中玲), until January this year an assistant to KMT Legislator Tsai Ling-lan (蔡鈴蘭), was accused of earning NT$250,000 in transaction fees as a middleman from a couple, surnamed Luo, after selling the couple 100 shares in Eastern Broadband Telecommunications Co Ltd (東森寬頻電信股份有限公司).
Tsai Ming-chin (蔡明欽), Lee's husband, who is also a member of staff for the legislature's Judicial Committee, allegedly even threatened the Luos, saying that "malicious power" might be used against the couple if they requested the return of the transaction fees, Chen said.
Both Lee's husband and Legislator Tsai claimed they were not in the know.
"Lee left her job as my assistant in January. I have no idea as to how she has been using my name to conduct business outside the legislature," Tsai said.
Lack of Standard Recruitment Criteria
Although records in the legislature show that certain lawmakers' assistants have conducted illegal dealings by utilizing their status as aides, many believe that such cases are the exception rather than the rule.
"The majority of lawmakers' assistants are serious about their work," said DPP Legislator Perng Shaw-jiin (
There are about 1,000 assistants in the legislature, and they perform a variety of tasks ranging from drafting bills, preparing public hearings and press conferences, serving as their legislator's "morning call" or drivers, to doing some public relations work for lawmakers and conducting "surgeries" for constituents.
"Some aides who have worked for a controversial independent lawmaker even had to visit the lawmaker's friends in the prison," said an assistant surnamed Hsiao.
While the majority of aides might be honest and hardworking, that there are some bad apples in the barrel is the unsurprising result of the haphazard way in which they are recruited. There is no standard recruitment process.
"It's up to individual lawmakers to decide who they want to hire. A law establishing standards for a qualified assistant is still lacking," said Li Kung-chi (李孔智), secretary-general of the Legislative Yuan Congressional Assistants Union (立法院國會助理工會).
When asked what criteria he has in mind when he recruits a new assistant, controversial independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu's (
Gloomy Prospects
At the same time, however, Perng admitted that his colleagues in the legislature might not see eye-to-eye with him.
"The whole thing is contingent upon the nature of the legislator concerned. If a lawmaker is out to make money, he or she will naturally hire assistants who can help achieve that end," Perng said.
Lawmakers' lukewarm support for a draft set of regulations laying down minimum criteria for a qualified aide suggests that most are not unhappy with the status quo in which each is left with tremendous freedom to decide who they want to hire as their aides, Li said.
"As a result, among some 1,000 aides to legislators, it's hard to avoid getting some lawbreakers, isn't it?" Li added.
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