For the sake of his party's reputation, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (
Already considered the most likely DPP candidate for Kaohsiung mayor in 2006, the young legislator climbed a further rung on the political ladder recently when he was elected as a whip for the DPP's legislative caucus.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
While the KMT and PFP have launched a damage control campaign after failing to prevent their city councilors from voting for Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) for council speaker, the DPP has largely succeeded in preserving its clean reputation because of Chen's warning.
Two days before the speakership election, the Kaohsiung City lawmaker told President Chen Shui-bian (
It was widely reported that Chu, awaiting trial on two-year old charges of fraud and bribery, had bought votes from almost 30 councilors from across party lines at NT$5 million per vote. The city council has 44 members.
Most of the 14 DPP councilors were discovered to have taken bribes from Chu, whom they had invited to join the party to bolster its strength on the council.
"It was a clear and simple choice. I couldn't support a controversial figure, nor allow my party's members to commit such misconduct. Had I not done what I did, I would have failed to live up to the expectation of my supporters," the lawmaker told the Taipei Times.
Taking in the lawmaker's advice, President Chen demanded the party undertake immediate damage control, forbidding the city's DPP councilors to vote for Chu. Chu was ultimately elected, but without votes from the DPP.
Asked whether fear of alienating his supporters in Kaohsiung had caused him to demur as to the correct course of action, Chen said.
"I did not think of the consequences because I believed that was the right thing to do," he said.
Despite his youth, the 38-year-old Chen is a senior lawmaker at the legislature, already serving his third term. He is also a member of the DPP's Central Standing Committee.
Initially planning to be a doctor, Chen, while a graduate student at National Taiwan University's department of public health, dabbled in politics as the aide of his father, currently deputy secretary-general to the president but then a KMT lawmaker, Chen Che-nan (
Already active in environmental and social issues in the 1990s, this son of a political family ran in a legislative election in 1995 and became the nation's youngest lawmaker at the age of 31.
Diligent and professional, Chen achieved political fame in a mere three years, winning re-election in 1998 with more votes than any other candidates.
He is a member of the "club of the 60s (
In July last year, Chen participated in a program sponsored by the US State Department to visit several cities and government agencies in the US.
He said that what most impressed him was his visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Formed to help people prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters, the organization, he said, offered the best model for the DPP in its consideration of systematic approaches to crisis-management that can encompass central and regional governments.
In a bid to familiarize himself with China, Chen visited three times last year, meeting with scholars from Chinese think tanks and governmental officials.
He denied media reports that the visits were special missions ordered by the president, terming them instead "voyages of understanding."
No slouch in his spare time either, the lawmaker has developed an interest in translation.
He is a co-translator of The Third Way of the New Generation, a collection of speeches by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In the hope of introducing Taiwanese readers to the theory of global capitalism and discouraging extremism in the face of the polarization of politics, he has translated Runaway World : How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives, by Anthony Giddens, Director of the London School of Economics and guiding intellectual light behind Blair's "Third Way" and the president's "New Middle Way" (
He is currently working on translating another of Giddens' work, On the Edge: Living with Global Capitalism.
Chen says he does not want to restrict himself to being a regional politician focusing only on how best to serve his constituency for electoral purposes or how to use demagoguery to boost his popularity.
Instead, he said his goal is "to build on his status and achievements to date, to learn about government, cross-strait issues and world affairs."
Considered a protege of President Chen given his longstanding relations with the president and the group of presidential aides of his age, Chen Chi-mai says that rather than considering the association a reflection of his talent, people in fact tend to underestimate his ability.
"People tend to see me as the president's megaphone at the legislature whereas, very often, I am speaking for myself," Chen said.
Meanwhile, despite the wide perception of him as the president's choice for Kaohsiung in 2006, the lawmaker says he has not thought that far ahead and aims, for now, to focus on honing his talents and fulfilling his lawmaker's duties to the best of his ability.
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