Taiwan's current battles against political corruption will benefit the country in the future, an official from Transparency International (TI) said.
Liao Ran, the program coordinator for Transparency International Asia Pacific who helped establish Taiwan's chapter of the international non-governmental organization, TI-Taiwan, in September 2002, has been monitoring the country for years.
The Taipei Times interviewed Liao when he was in Taipei from Berlin to attend a recent conference on fighting corruption.
Liao said TI-Taiwan has become one of the most active chapters among the more than 160 TI chapters.
He said he was opposed to President Chen Shui-bian (
"The TI sees presidential immunity as a backward law and a relic from the days of kings, and is launching a campaign to persuade nations to drop it," Liao said.
He criticized British Prime Minister Tony Blair for recently asking the UK's judicial system to stop a criminal investigation into alleged corruption by an arms company that is suspected to have bribed Saudi officials.
Blair claimed the probe would endanger Britain's security if allowed to continue, Liao said.
However, Liao said such actions allow corruption to flourish and jeopardize democracy.
He said bureaucratic corruption in this country has been reduced, but political corruption remains serious.
"The democratization of the country has helped it to clean up bureaucratic corruption and it will help eliminate political corruption in the future," he said.
He said, however, that it is not democracy itself, but the establishment of an anti-corruption system under democracy, that is crucial to the elimination of corruption.
Liao also praised the recent empowerment of the nation's top prosecutor to form and lead a special investigative team probing allegations of wrongdoing involving high-ranking government officials.
He said he was impressed by Taiwan's prosecutorial system's determination to fight political corruption.
"Although a crackdown would affect perceptions of corruption both at home and abroad, it would be advantageous to the country in the long run," he said.
Asked to comment on last December's mayoral polls in Taipei and Kaohsiung, which saw the Democratic Progressive Party's best performance since the 2004 presidential election despite a series of high-profile scandals, Liao said corruption is only one factor that can influence elections, along with political parties' policies and performance.
For instance, he said, although US president Bill Clinton was allegedly involved in the Whitewater scandal and other scandal, he easily won a second term.
However, Liao warned that Taiwan's court system is ineffective, which hampers prosecutors' efforts to stamp out crime.
"Corrupt officials and white-collar criminals do not go to jail [for years] because of delayed or prolonged trials, or they flee the country during the trial," he said.
Taiwanese legislators came in last place -- 20th -- in terms of integrity, according to a recent TI-Taiwan survey.
Last November TI-Taiwan published its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for last year, drawing on 16 polls and surveys from 10 independent institutions. Taiwan was ranked No. 34 out of 163 countries in the index, making it a "middle integrity" country.
Liao said Taiwan should continue to battle its serious vote-buying problem, which has affected the integrity of elected officials.
He noted that among Taiwan's neighbors, South Korea and the Philippines had also suffered from vote-buying problems and related side effects.
TI is an organization devoted to combating corruption by bringing civil society, business and governments together, Liao said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard