Wed, Apr 18, 2001 page8

• Friends and the art of political cronyism

  • By Chin Heng-wei 金恆煒
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  After two rounds of voting, the Legislative Yuan on April 12 finally approved a decision by its Discipline Committee to punish independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) with a six-month suspension for slapping his People First Party colleague Diane Lee (李慶安). Lo, who has frequently been accused of having links to Taiwan's underworld, issued a statement after learning of the decision. One remark in his statement, which he called the "voice from his heart" (心聲), provides much food for thought: "Politics is a transient thing; friendships are forever." I believe this line will be on everyone's lips for quite some time.

  Interestingly, it was not a hollow remark. Minutes from the Legislative Yuan's meeting attest to the truth of it. Only 73 percent of all lawmakers attended the meeting that discussed Lo's punishment. Apart from the New Party, there were legislators missing from all the other political parties -- a testament to how many "friends" Lo has and how much support he enjoys across party lines.

  Even though all the parties had issued "class-A mobilization" (甲級動員令) orders to rally their lawmakers to support Lo's punishment, the orders were obviously not effective. In particular, three KMT lawmakers openly opposed Lo's punishment, while another two abstained from the vote. Another 44 KMT lawmakers were absent. Only 61KMT legislators -- about half of the party caucus -- followed instructions from the party headquarters and voted for the punishment.

  So we can see the extent of Lo's close relations with the KMT. Lo campaigned for Lien Chan (連戰) in last year's presidential campaign. It is no surprise that so many KMT lawmakers have been willing to ignore the party's orders in favor of the "Big Brother." That's camaraderie.

  It will be interesting to see how the KMT will deal with lawmakers who flouted its orders. Of course, voting against the punishment and abstaining from the vote amounted to open defiance, but avoiding the meeting under various pretexts was a form of passive resistance. According to reports, KMT spokeswoman Chen Feng-shin (陳鳳馨) has already hinted that the party's disciplinary committee may not take issue with the three who voted against the six-month suspension. If the party will not even punish those who voted against its orders, how could it possibly punish those who abstained from the vote or were "absent" from the meeting?

  It is not that the KMT does not have the power to punish its lawmakers. It was simply a case of deliberately downplaying the issue and looking on while the party's lawmakers went ahead and supported Lo. For whatever reasons, the KMT has added one more blot to its public image and again made itself a target of

  criticism.

  Worse still, the party has flushed its own authority and credibility down the drain by not cracking the whip over a class-A mobilization order. How can the party ever stress the importance of a mobilization after setting such a precedent? Perhaps the party will need to read the moods of its "friends" before issuing another mobilization order.

  Chin Heng-wei is editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.

  Translated by Francis Huang
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