Instead of clarifying the doubts and questions that surround his campaign, James Soong has chosen to delegate New Party lawmaker Hsieh Chi-ta to do the job on his behalf. Such a move augurs ill for the integrity he is supposed to show as a presidential candidate.
Notwithstanding her status as a former judge, Hsieh is now openly interfering in the affairs of financial institutions. If Taiwan society condones such an act, it will be a serious trampling of the rule of law.
Apart from herself, few other people believe Hsieh can be a fair third party. At the Legislative Yuan she cracked the whip on finance minister Paul Chiu for failing to maintain ?dministrative neutrality?over the Soong scandal.
Now, Hsieh herself is openly using her position as a politician to meddle in the affair.
Leading a large flock of journalists, she turned the heat on the finance ministry and the banks. It looked like she was seeking the truth about the Soong scandal, but in fact she was acting like a judge questioning a criminal ?while her every move was being broadcast live on TV.
She was in fact setting a vicious example for political interference in judicial affairs.
The Legislative Yuan's finance committee contains a good number of questionable politicians, who often try to pressure financial institutions on the sly and squeeze them for benefits. Hsieh's act yesterday was a huge encouragement to those kinds of lawmakers.
Pressuring a minister over an individual case is clearly an act designed to help Soong. It is an example of using the law as a political smoke screen. Yet Hsieh called it a crusade for justice.
The finance minister may not have done a perfect job in maintaining administrative neutrality in the Soong scandal.
However, he could not really have done much better, given the enormous political pressure placed upon him. It may not be fair to accuse him of deliberately helping the KMT obtain information that may be damaging to Soong.
In fact, the responsibility lies with the bank officials who released the information and the legislator who acquired it.
The obligation to privacy at financial institutions is indeed an important factor in the future development of the financial industry. However, there are always exceptions to this rule: the foreign banks which provided the Philippine government with information on the overseas assets of former president Ferdinand Marcos may have breached the trust of their clients. However, not providing the information may have amounted to abetting corruption.
Facing doubts and questions from all directions, Soong has misled the public with all manner of evasions and deceptions. Now, he seems to have lost the courage to face questioning eyes, as he tries to use legislators as a shield.
However, trying to divert attention and buy time will not make the questions disappear. On the contrary, such acts will only generate new problems and cost him whatever public trust he still has.
Richard Nixon left us a good lesson on the perils of dishonesty. He was not the one who directly ordered the Watergate bugging, but his long string of lies eventually cost him his integrity and the US presidency.
To solve his problems, Soong will eventually have to rely on himself. Hsieh may be able to bring him a nice Christmas gift, but not much more.
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