The pan-green and pan-blue camps last week became locked in a war of words involving Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, and a game of mahjong at the Club Med Bali resort in Indonesia on Feb. 4.
The controversy began when KMT Central Review Committee member Chen Hung-chang (陳宏昌), accompanying President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during a visit to New Taipei City’s Yonglian Temple on Aug. 11, claimed that Han spent most of his time playing mahjong, drinking and womanizing.
The following day, Han issued a strong rebuttal, saying that he had not played the game once since taking office late last year.
After Han issued the denial, Kaohsiung City Councilor Lin Chih-hung (林智鴻), of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), posted a photograph on Facebook that purportedly showed Han playing mahjong with his wife, son and KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) — who is also serving as Han’s campaign spokeswoman — at the resort during the Lunar New Year holiday. The DPP then accused Han of lying to the public.
The dispute morphed into an argument about whether playing mahjong with family members could be considered gambling, but what concerns the public is how someone who might one day be president can appear so imprudent and unable to moderate his behavior.
If former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) were alive today, would he tolerate government officials or legislators displaying such a lack of restraint and playing “home mahjong?”Of course not. Chiang was a picture of probity and self-restraint, and he required that the administration and party members emulate his clean living principles.
He also demanded that they draw a clear line between themselves and any outside forces that could have swayed government policy, including business, industry and elected representatives.
Any holder of public office who casually forgets the importance of their position and influence, and begins transgressing the line of self-restraint and moral rectitude, could potentially open themselves up to outside forces, including agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who could try to exploit character weaknesses.
Manipulation could happen by roping in legislators, gambling friends or drinking buddies who are close to a government official so that the CCP could profit from their political connections or influence the direction of public policy, with potentially disastrous consequences for the nation.
The dispute over Han’s alleged lying about his mahjong habits extends further than the apparent telling of a fib.
If Han, who aspires to the highest office in the land, is unable to moderate his behavior while exerting the enormous influence that such a position entails, questions regarding his moral fitness for office are likely to dog his entire presidency.
Paul Lei is a media worker and a former secretary of the Control Yuan.
Translated by Edward Jones
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