Sun, Sep 15, 2002 page2

• Public split on politicians' affairs

  MORAL STANDARD Allegations of extramarital affairs have the potential to sink political careers, but in many cases public figures can weather such scandals

  • By Stephanie Low / STAFF REPORTER
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  The large number of media reports on public figures' infidelities has the public questioning the impact of sex scandals on politicians' careers.

  According to a survey by the TVBS poll center on Aug. 12, 61 percent of people believe that a politician's personal life should be a model for the public, and only 28 percent think that it is no one else's business.

  However, people were divided on whether it is more important for a politician to manage his marriage well or do his job well.

  Forty-five percent percent of those surveyed thought that it doesn't matter whether a politician has a happy marriage, saying it is more important that he performs his job well. Still, 44 percent disagreed with that statement.

  The results help explain why involvement in an extra-marital affair has become a moral stigma leaving politicians open to attacks from rivals and why allegations of sex scandals crop up during election campaigns.

  Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly, has attributed the phenomenon to the profound influence of traditional Confucianism, which sets a high moral standard for politicians, on Chinese people.

  "No matter how much liberal thought has been introduced to this modern society, some deep-rooted traditional values continue to exist. It is this latent cultural factor that makes negative publicity related to sex so forceful in election campaigns," Chin once said at a discussion on the topic held by the Taiwan Media Watch Foundation (台灣媒體觀察基金會).

  This has been proven in the case of many politicians, the most recent being Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文). When Yao was sworn in as president of the Examination Yuan, attention was focussed on his alleged affairs.

  One woman threatened to disclose evidence of Yao's infidelity, which she claimed was sufficient to "unseat another DPP chairman and threaten Yao's Examination Yuan presidency."

  In Yao's case, the allegations did not appear to sidetrack his campaign, however, because no evidence or witness came out.

  Still, in an attempt to put the charges behind him, Yao and his wife, DPP Legislator Chou Ching-yu (周清玉), publicly portrayed themselves as a loving couple.

  During appearances at the legislature, Yao would hold Chou's hand and he once told his wife "I love you" during a legislative session to review his nomination.

  While such allegations appear potentially damaging, involvement in a sex scandal does not necessarily lead to political defeat.

  This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that many legislators were elected, though they are known to be unfaithful to their wives. In particular, their infidelity seems tolerable to their constituents as long as they keep their families intact and their wives express no objection.

  For example, DPP Legislator Cheng Yu-chen (鄭余鎮), who made headlines last month for eloping to the US with his aide Sophie Wang (王筱嬋), has faced numerous allegations of affairs during his 30 years of marriage to Lu Pei-yin (呂珮茵) and even has an illegitimate daughter.

  Well aware of the situation, Cheng's constituents in Hsinchuang, Taipei County, still threw their support behind him until he announced his decision to divorce his wife to marry Wang. Former supporters said Cheng "has been dismissed" for the "ungrateful" manner with which he treated Lu.

  An older case involves former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), who finally divorced his wife Hsu Jui-ying (徐瑞英) to marry his long-time mistress Chu Ah-ying (朱阿英) early this year. While his affair with Chu failed to impact his 17-year career as a legislator, the decision to get a divorce resulted in his being labeled a "heartless husband."

  Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), another three-term DPP legislator, has been accused of maintaining an extramarital relationship for 17 years and has a illegitimate 4-year-old daughter, which his colleagues call an open secret.

  Politicians involved in sex scandals usually have little problem surviving multi-seat elections such as those for the legislature, in which they only need to appeal to a small group of loyal voters. However they may feel the impact of such a scandal in a presidential or mayoral race.

  In these single-seat elections, candidates usually need to attract neutral voters who have no specific political affiliation and tend to make a last-minute decision as to which candidate to support.

  As shown in a Power News poll in February 2000 -- one month before the presidential poll -- 24 percent of the people had not decided on which presidential candidate to vote for. For these people, a main criterion for them was the candidate's character, according to the survey.

  Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), who served as Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) campaign strategist for his 1994 and 1998 Taipei mayoral bids, said campaign publicity, either positive or negative, often only impacts those who are undecided and whose voting behavior is subject to change.

  "The target of campaign publicity is not those whose support you already have nor those who will never support you. In other words, the scope may be narrowed to the median voters," Luo said.

  A victim of this kind of negative publicity is former Kaohsiung mayor Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who lost the mayoralty to the DPP's Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in 1998 by only 5,000 votes.

  Wu believes that allegations of his having an affair were one of the many factors responsible for his defeat. The allegations were backed up by a taped conversation between Wu and the alleged mistress, which the Kaohsiung District Court later determined determined to have been faked.

  "Justice has been upheld, though it is delayed," Wu said.
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