On Tuesday, the Berlin-based watchdog group Transparency International (TI) released its annual "Corruption Perception Index." Seven out of 10 countries scored less than five on the 10-point index, with Finland ranked as the world's cleanest nation and Bangladesh the worst. Taiwan received 5.7 points -- a 0.1-point improvement from last year -- and was ranked 30th. That's one spot down from its 29th place last year, but this could be due to the fact that 133 countries were included in the index this year, up from 102 last year.
TI said this year's results showed unacceptably high levels of public-sector corruption in many rich countries. The organization concluded, however, that Taiwan ranks among medium-level corruption-free countries.
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan's (
What is perplexing, however, is media reports quoting people from TI's headquarters in Berlin saying that Taiwan's democratization has also given rise to political corruption and citing government procurement programs and vote-buying as examples.
It is not known whether the quotes were used correctly, or whether they were taken out of context by reporters who were slanting their stories according to their own political beliefs. All told, such mistrust in democracy and nostalgia for an authoritarian era is very perplexing.
Illegalities in government procurement bids and elections have always existed. They are not a product of democratization. Government procurement programs under the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) decades-long rule were always pork barrels for civil servants and Chiang family sycophants. Officials handling the procurement and the bid winners shared the spoils. Corruption and back-room deals were everywhere and the legislature was unable to monitor the executive branch. After democratization, however, the colluding bidders are now legislators and councilors.
Election irregularities such as vote-buying are also nothing new. Before the lifting of martial law, elections were often little more than voters rubber-stamping the KMT's choices. Even if candidates nominated by the KMT were unpopular, they still managed to get elected thanks to vote-buying and bribery. After democratization, not even the ruling party's candidates enjoyed this privilege any longer. Candidates -- or their supporters -- are prosecuted once evidence is collected.
Democratic politics have now exposed many past cases of corruption. During election campaigns, the media reports cases of vote-buying and crackdowns by the Ministry of Justice on a daily basis. Frequently, corruption cases are exposed and political appointees resign -- perhaps giving many people the impression that Taiwan's society is mired in chaos, and that thieves are everywhere.
It is ironic that, by declaring war on "black gold," Chen may have created an impression that black gold reigns supreme in this country. As the justice ministry goes all out against black gold, the media reports on the crackdowns may create the impression that "black gold" politics have prevailed in Taiwan only since President Chen Shui-bian (
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