With the January presidential election around the corner, the issue of administrative neutrality is proving to be increasingly pertinent in light of several recent incidents.
First, it was reported yesterday that the Taipei City Hall souvenir shop has a sales display of memorabilia for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign. With items ranging from T-shirts to piggy banks adorned with the image of Ma in a jogging outfit, a salesperson at the shop was quoted by local media as saying that the campaign items have been on sale for almost half a year.
Coincidentally, it was also reported yesterday that Ma paid a visit to the Greater Taichung City Government’s Police Bureau on Sunday, during which all the section chiefs and rank-and-file officers were called in from the field for a photo-op with the president.
Last but not least, for the past two weeks Ma has used press conferences at the Presidential Office to unveil his 10-year policy platform.
So much for Ma’s repeated calls for officials to heed public perception and implement measures to ensure neutrality between administrative and party affairs. The aforementioned incidents certainly suggest the possible exploitation of administrative resources for partisan gains. This is why the public needs to keep a close eye on the government to keep it in check.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said it has asked the souvenir shop to pull Ma’s campaign products from its shelves. Does Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) really think this move alone can put an end to the incident? Given that the campaign items have been on display at the shop for six months, it is preposterous that Hau and other city officials had no prior knowledge that these items were being sold there.
Hau owes it to the public to find out whether the city’s Department of Information and Tourism has violated administrative neutrality by knowingly turning a blind eye to the brazen selling of campaign items in favor of a particular candidate.
While it is disturbing to see the Taipei City Government seemingly taking advantage of the city’s generally perceived pan-blue electorate to serve a certain political party’s partisan interests, Ma’s visit and photo-op with the Greater Taichung City Government police officers is just as inappropriate given his sensitive dual capacity as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate.
Would Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) be allowed to do the same without being subjected to relentless public criticism?
Has Ma forgotten that back in 2000, when he was Taipei mayor, he reprimanded then-Beitou police station chief Wu Cheng-chi (吳振吉), who was later given two demerits, for a failure to maintain administrative neutrality for welcoming then-DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at the Beitou police station?
With less than 100 days until the presidential election, close attention needs to be paid to how various government officials and agencies conduct themselves. After all, they are on the taxpayers’ payroll to serve the nation and its people, not a specific political party.
Ma’s re-election campaign office yesterday stressed it would help maintain administrative neutrality in government agencies. Having shown the public it can talk the talk, the question is: Can it walk the walk?
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