The inauguration ceremony of the mayors and city councilmen of Kaohsiung and Taipei City took place on Wednesday with the elections for the two city councils' speakers and deputy speakers taking place immediately afterwards. Taipei's election was the less complicated of the two and did not result in much controversy. The election in Kaohsiung, however, sparked major interest, inciting public skepticism toward both the opposition and ruling camps.
In the elections held earlier this month, the DPP became the biggest party in the Kaohsiung City Council. But, right before the election of council speaker and deputy speaker, the DPP's council caucus did something that took everyone by surprise -- it passed a resolution supporting the election of independent councilman Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) as the new speaker.
Many DPP members and supporters found it difficult to accept this, since Chu is a defendant in several ongoing criminal lawsuits. Realizing just how serious a matter this was, the DPP's Central Standing Committee (CSC) officially passed a resolution to rescind the caucus' earlier appeal.
The DPP reiterated that anyone who had been implicated in vote-buying, corruption or other major financial scandals and then became the target of government investigations, could never become a candidate supported by the caucus. Although the candidates nominated by the CSC were defeated and Chu was elected speaker, the DPP managed to save a great deal of face as a result of its timely decision.
Rumors of vote-buying for this election had been circulating for some time. Reportedly, the price for each vote in the speaker election was as high as NT$10 million, while the deputy speaker election was billed at NT$3 million. Moreover, the payments were to be made in installments both before and after the election.
Similar rumors about the Taipei City Council elections also circulated and, as a result, Premier Yu Shyi-kun especially instructed Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
If Chen unearths any legitimate suspicions or concrete evidence of vote-buying, the matter must be dealt with according to the law, Yu emphasized. That led to the heavy prosecutor and police presence at the Kaohsiung City Council vote to monitor the entire process and gather potential evidence. They did not dare drop their guard for a second.
The speakers and deputy speakers of the two city councils have now been elected. Rumors of vote-buying however persist. It's time for the Prosecutors' Office to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Chen held a press conference on Wednesday revealing that Chu was to be charged with vote-buying in the city council election earlier this month as well as embezzling company assets. The Prosecutors' Office is seeking jail terms of two years and four months for vote-rigging and seven years for embezzlement, Chen said. Chen then called on the Judicial Yuan to urge the courts to give quick trials for these cases, because "belated justice is no justice at all."
The general public should open their eyes to see whether the opposition and ruling parties are living up to their "anti-black-gold" slogans in the speaker and deputy speaker elections. Let us use the election in Kaohsiung as an example. At the end, all 14 votes from the DPP were cast for candidates nominated by the party. The TSU voted for their own candidates as well. The independent Chu was elected obviously due to the support of the pan-blue councilmen. The KMT had already indicated that if any KMT councilmen were involved in vote-buying, they wouild be immediately expelled from the party. The PFP also declared that if any of its councilmen were involved in any illegal activity, they too would be expelled. This indicates that the ruling and opposition camps do have a consensus when it comes to opposing the use of violence and money to gain votes in elections. The only remaining question is: What action have they taken against these practises?
Actually, even before the elections took place, both the opposition and ruling camps knew very well what may be going on under the table and had paid a fair amount of attention to vote-buying rumors. Under the circumstances, all the self-proclaimed anti-black-gold parties should have taken action to demonstrate their determination to root out election-rigging, however, the DPP has been the only one to take any action so far.
President Chen Shui-bian (
In contrast, the KMT and the PFP adopted a very passive attitude before the elections. One cannot help but wonder how serious they were in their condemnation of election skullduggery. How can they allow their council members to support a candidate who is being prosecuted for vote-buying?
The PFP had criticized the KMT for being unable to sever ties with its black-gold links. The KMT answered that it had long shed the shadows of the past 12 years.
In other words, the two parties now supposedly spare no effort in opposing black-gold politics. But, despite the public's hope that the two parties would put their words into action, they do not appear to be taking matters seriously.
Bluntly put, the KMT and PFP may think they oppose black gold, but the public saw something entirely different, at least at far as this past election in Kaohsiung is concerned.
One cannot help but ask that if the KMT and PFP were so serious and determined about expelling members that accepted bribes, why couldn't they have taken preventive measure beforehand? The DPP could do it, but why not the KMT and the PFP?
The rumors of vote-buying do not appear baseless. Why are people willing to fork out such large sums of money to buy the speaker and deputy speaker positions?
It is because they hope to reap handsome profits through the privileges that come with the positions. They also hope to turn these position into protective shields against any criminal prosecution they currently face.
The campaign against black gold should not be merely empty political slogans. Rather, it is necessary for a healthy economic order at home. Society has an expectation that the ruling and opposition camps both turn up satisfactory progress reports in this regard.
They hope that the campaign would be able to not only help democratic reform, but also help revive the economy. So, since all political camps have vowed to oppose black gold to the end, they should seriously act on their words. The public is closely watching to see if they are consistent in words and actions.
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