On Nov. 24, Taiwan’s 19.2 million eligible voters are to go to the polls to elect 11,047 public officials. While the public and the media are devoting most of their attention to and strictly scrutinizing the 93 candidates vying for the 22 city mayor and county commissioner seats, hardly anyone cares about what is going on in the grassroots-level elections — and they should.
As Taiwan’s democracy matures, there have been far less cases of high-ranking public officials being embroiled in corruption charges or other illegal practices, or candidates running for high-level posts seeking to boost their chance of victory with vote-buying. To outsiders or those who do not look closely enough, Taiwan does seem like a shining beacon of democracy in Asia.
However, at the grassroots level, changes have been less drastic in terms of electoral political culture, while the entanglement of politics and crime remains strong. Vote-buying and corruption seem to be more common, as are other criminal activities.
Two lists of city and county councilor candidates who are either on trial or have been found guilty of corruption or other illegal activities published by the New Power Party (NPP) shed some light on the scope of the problem.
Sixty-seven, or 13 percent, of the councilor candidates nominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT); 37, or 9.3 percent, of the councilor candidates representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP); and 66 independent or minor-party councilor candidates have criminal records or are facing criminal charges, the NPP said.
That means that about one in 10 councilor candidates has engaged in illegal activities, given that 1,769 councilor candidates joined the local elections this year. The number is down to 1,754 after 15 of the candidates were last week disqualified by the Central Election Commission for having run afoul of the law or electoral procedures.
The charges brought against them range from corruption, vote-buying and driving under the influence, to intimidation, running a gambling house and counterfeiting US dollar bills. Some of them are convicted of crimes that one would hardly ever associate with holders of public office, such as manslaughter, attempted murder and causing bodily harm to others.
It is inconceivable that these people are actually running for a post, the holder of which is expected to safeguard the interests of local residents, and supervise the mayor and other city affairs. With their compromised moral standards, one can hardly imagine them properly fulfilling the duties the position entails.
Of more concern is that neither the KMT nor the DPP have responded to the NPP’s call for an explanation as to why they endorsed candidates with a rap sheet. The lack of response either suggests a guilty conscience or that the two major parties simply care too little about who they choose to fill grassroots-level seats.
Eradicating vote-buying and corruption practices is a similar task to promoting gender equality in politics. Electing a female president and setting a minimum quota for female lawmakers in the Legislative Yuan might seem like a huge achievement, but they are mostly symbolic if the posts of borough and village wardens continue to be dominated by men.
By the same token, if people continue to be approached in their neighborhoods by candidates running for local positions offering them money in exchange for their support, or see their city councilors or village wardens closely associated with local gangs — or being members themselves — they will not have faith in the nation’s political system.
Anti-corruption reforms can only be called a success when they have trickled down to local levels. Unfortunately, this will not happen until the nation’s two major parties start being responsible political actors. A good first step would be to stop filling local councils with politicians who have criminal records.
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