At that time, electoral and governmental corruption became more severe and the practice of vote-buying began to disappear.
With democratization in the 1990s the problem escalated.
Returning to Taiwan in the early 1990s after 12 years on the "blacklist," I saw a KMT that had become an empty structure dependent on local factions for its electoral campaigns. It was during this time that the KMT nominated numerous wealthy businessmen as well as gangsters. The resultant "black gold" (黑金) politics reduced even further the "morality" of vote-buying. Now, candidates offered much more substantial sums, while voters accepted money from multiple candidates and no longer felt an obligation to cast their ballot for the purchaser.
This heyday of "black gold" politics casts the biggest shadow over former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) superb leadership in Taiwan's transition to democracy. If the money did not come down last night, Chen's government will have helped Taiwan take another significant step on the road to democracy.
Bruce Jacobs is professor of Asian languages and studies and director of the Taiwan Research Unit at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is contributing daily comment for the Taipei Times during the election campaign.
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