Global Policy Forum

Editorial:

Transparency International (TI), an NGO with the estimable purpose of eradicating corruption, was in Taiwan last week, pondering the creation of a Taiwan branch. "What" asked Margit van Ham, the organization's executive director, of our editorial board, "were the main problems concerning corruption in Taiwan." As readers can imagine, we were somewhat at a loss for words. Even a short answer would have to be book-length.

But one thing that quickly becomes apparent in any attempt to formulate an answer to this question is that you cannot talk about corruption without talking about the political system. The basis of Taiwan's corruption problem is the nexus of financial and political interests at the local level, the so-called "factions" and the fact that political power can be bought, and then used to enrich those who chipped in to buy it. This of course is not news to anybody. The problem is that as soon as the link between politics and corruption is cited, political partisanship arises.

Mainlander unificationists, for example, try -- absurdly -- to blame Lee Teng-hui (§íµÂµn½í·), claiming that Taiwan was a bastion of social and political cleanliness before the president's "localization" campaign, which transferred power to Taiwanese, some of whom admittedly had less than spotless backgrounds.

Taiwanese on the other hand often simply blame the KMT, reasoning that Chiang Kai-shek (½±¤¥í›) was kicked out of China because of the corruption of his government, and this he brought to Taiwan. Unfortunately, criminal though Chiang certainly was, this is once again too politically convenient an explanation. After all, much of the governmental system -- including the voting system which so regularly returns known gangsters to the Legislative Yuan -- was not devised by the KMT but inherited from the Japanese. The exiled KMT used the system that operated in Taiwan to their own advantage, certainly, but did not create that system.

In the end perhaps the root of Taiwan's problem lies in its own history. Before the Japanese occupation Taiwan was a notoriously violent and lawless frontier society. It had a great influx of settlers from China, many of whom were young, unmarried men, and vicious competition for resources. The system of local government was rudimentary at best and almost utterly ineffective. In such times, people did what they normally do, paid the local tough guy for protection, a role that also involved dispute resolution between members of a community. Since the government could not control such men it granted them official titles to sustain the fiction of central control.

And there you have it, local government by gangsters, vastly preferable in the eyes of the Taiwanese to no government at all. Here we have local "muscle" being used to gain access to political and economic spoils which are used to legitimize community standing. This sounds as good a description of things in, say, Yunlin County today as it was 150 years ago.

Of course telling TI that the problem behind Taiwan's corruption is its last 250 years of history is not very useful. But nor is it useful to play political "name and blame." Let us at least admit that the problem begins at the local level, with the factions. Let us also admit that these factions did serve a purpose that members of a community found useful -- even if their exaction were financially onerous. Then let us ask how people can be persuaded that these factions are anachronistic -- and here let us note that it is still more effective to settle many disputes through the help of your local "big brother" than it is to go through the courts. How are Taiwanese to be shown that clean government can and does work?