The following are excerpts from a conversation I had with some friends on issues concerning Taiwan's current political environment.
"After the transition of power in 2000, I looked forward to seeing the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) black-gold politics go. But six years later, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration is embroiled in a series of corruption scandals. How can I face my pan-blue friends? Who should we trust, the pan-greens or the pan-blues?"
"I understand your feelings, but I am not that pessimistic. We must understand that democratic nations are not free of problems. Rather they have the ability to deal with and eliminate existing problems. When democracy is guaranteed, there is no need to fear corruption, since scandals will be exposed."
"Yes, the third president of the US, Thomas Jefferson, once said that democratic politics is not based on trust, but on suspicion. At first, I did not understand what that meant, but now I do. All people have their weaknesses and limits; therefore, we must never rely on blind faith and entrust any single person or party with power. This is why we have a government with separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, opposition parties, limited government official terms and so on."
"Exactly. We also have freedom of expression, which allows the public to expose corruption and unfairness. This is another way of dealing with and eliminating existing problems. This makes me think of several US authors and journalists who exposed illegal relationships between officials and business in early 20th-century America. They exposed the exploitation of workers and filthy food handling in the meatpacking industry in Chicago, corruption in the governments of major US cities, illegal profiteering rackets involving the government railway construction companies, corruption involving trusts and government agencies, and many scandals involving the drug industry and media circles. Such revelations of corruption in the 1910s caused a reaction throughout US society and later became known as `muckraking.' What is worrying is that some of the muck is actually seen as something valuable and positive, as happened during the Chiang era."
"When the KMT was still in power, the DPP often said the KMT was good at corrupt practices and that if it ever became the opposition, their experience meant that they would be good at exposing corruption. This statement seems to make sense now that the KMT excels in exposing corruption, and it might be a good thing if it stayed in opposition; it would help expose corruption."
"From the perspective of their exposure of corruption, the KMT of course is a good opposition party, but in addition to muckraking, the party also slings mud in every direction. It blocks and opposes the government's every move, but also exposes any kind of unsubstantiated information in the hope of smearing and crippling the DPP administration. US muckrakers were independent and clean and nothing like our ugly and bellicose politicians who join hands with like-minded media outlets to engage in muckraking and mudslinging. They have skeletons in their own closets, but dig up dirt on others and freely throw that dirt around. This is nothing but political attacks and far from the operations of opposition parties in normal democracies."
"What's worse is that these people only dare dig up dirt on the localized regime, but nothing on China."
"This indicates that the KMT is not a suitable opposition party. But if the KMT regains its hold on power in the 2008 presidential elections, we will worry that black-gold politics will return and that China will ride in on their coat tails. What could we do?"
Lee Hsiao-feng is a professor of history at Shih Hsin University.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
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