The Presidential Office is the nexus of power in the nation. Naturally the conduct of the president, vice president and secretary-general within should adhere to the highest standards. However, it seems that the three bigwigs in the Presidential Office haven't adhered to even the lowest standards.
Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is already president. As such, he can not, need not and should not comport himself the way other people do. If the head of state is always squabbling, fighting and getting in shouting matches with others, it is detrimental to the dignity of the office and extre-mely inappropriate.
Chen frequently forgets himself, however. He can fulminate when Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) doesn't go see him. Again and again, he can suggestively hint at precisely how many times PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) met with him -- to the extent of demanding that the spokesman for the Presidential Office hold a formal news conference on the subject. Even the commander of the military police can join the fray by putting in his two cents. One might get the impression they were dealing with a matter of the utmost importance.
It's bad enough that the president treats these trifles as affairs of state, but what's worse is that he takes the lead in waging meaningless shouting matches. Today he blasts one person; tomorrow it's someone else. He rages to his heart's content, but this behavior diminishes the status of the president. It also narrows the role he can play and utterly degrades his office.
The vice president is an alternate head of state. She has no personal freedom of speech worth mentioning on state matters. As soon as she opens her mouth, she speaks for the president, the administration and even the nation. Other people interpret her statements this way, and she should demand the same of herself.
But Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) can't even get this bit of basic common sense right. Scholars can speak freely about the Chinese Communist Party's 16th National Congress, criticizing Beijing however they wish, but Lu is the vice president. If she holds a press conference in the Presidential Office to state an opinion, then every sentence she utters represents the administration, the nation and of course to an even greater extent, the president.
If the vice president doesn't represent the president when she makes a statement about a matter as important as the CCP's 16th National Congress at a formal press conference in her own office, then haven't affairs of state become a children's game?
It's ridiculous enough that Chen agreed to let Lu convene a personal press conference on the grounds of "freedom of speech." But it's completely absurd that Lu would make a point of emphasizing that her words did not represent the president's opinion.
As for Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Chen Shih-meng's (
No one who willingly takes an official post can both be part of an administration and speak as an opposition outsider. It's impossible to be a high official and at the same time be above it all.
Moreover, if Chen Shih-meng really advocates establishing an independent nation, he shouldn't serve as an official of the ROC, drawing an ROC salary and enjoying the privileges of a specially appointed ROC official.
By what logic can he depend upon the ROC for his livelihood and his authority while disdaining the ROC and even harboring other loyalties? If he really had any principles, he should have disdained accepting the post of secretary-general.
Taiwan's political figures are so disappointing because they frequently act in arbitrary and unrestrained ways. Now the three bigwigs of the presidential office are acting this way too.
I don't see what we can expect from politics of this sort.
Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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