Eliminating Old Malpractices

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The prevalence of corruption and organized crime has been hindering Taiwan's development in democracy and economic competitiveness. It has also obstructed the progress of educational reforms. We cannot open a future without breaking away with these old malpractices.

In his inaugural speech, President Chen Shui-bian pledged the new administration would be "clean and upright." In fulfilling this promise, the first and most important action is to eliminate vote-buying and black-gold politics, so as to free Taiwan from the force that is dragging society down and return a clean political, economic, and educational environment to the people.

Determination to Eradicate Black-gold Politics
The new administration has revised the legal framework to eliminate vote-buying and black-gold politics, and actively taken actions to combat organized crime.

In addition to the Law to Avoid Conflict of Interest among Public Functionaries, the draft bills of the Political Contributions Act, the Lobbying Act, the Organic Law of the Independent Commission Against Corruption under the Ministry of Justice, and the Money Laundering Prevention Law are currently under deliberation by the Legislative Yuan. A fund-tracing system for criminal offenses is also being prepared by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance and is scheduled to begin operations in July this year.

The Executive Yuan has established a black-gold investigation center, which indicted a total of 1,222 people suspected of corruption from last July to March this year. The amount of money involved in those corruption cases totaled over NT$6 billion.

Good Results in Combating Black-gold Politics
Elections of local farmers' and fishermen's associations have frequently been marred by violence and vote buying. After the new administration took office, it cleaned up election activities by revising laws governing farmers' and fishermen's associations, adding clauses to exclude gang members, and setting restrictions on the qualification of candidates, who run for the associations' representatives, directors, supervisors, and general managers. In the 2001 farmers' association election, 555 cases of vote-buying, violence, and violation of the election laws, involving 951 people, were sent to the court, an increase of 157 cases (42 people) compared with the 1997 election.

The government's crackdown on black-gold politics ignores the status, position, and party affiliation of suspects. A total of 149 public officials or elected representatives were indicted over the past year, including 6 legislators, 56 county magistrates/city mayors, council speakers, and councilors, 72 rural/urban township magistrates and representatives, and 15 village and borough chiefs, up 100%, 93%, 41%, 67% and 62% respectively from 1999.

More importantly, all society has felt a fresh and buoyant sentiment: no matter who is involved, this time the government is truly committed.

Reorganizing Private Schools
Organized crime has also attached the campus. In April, a conflict in the Legislative Yuan aroused public attention to corruption at the Jin-Wen Institute of Technology and other private schools. The new government has found serious problems in the operations and financial structures of private schools, and organized criminal involvement in educational institutions is far more serious than previously imagined. Combating organized crime on the campus was well under way before media exposure.

During the six years from 1994 to 1999, the Ministry of Education (MOE) had reorganized four private schools, taking over three of them. After the new administration came into office, 15 private schools have been reorganized; among them one school was disbanded, one placed under direct MOE supervision as a special case, and five were taken over.

The new administration has made significant progress in eliminating crime on campus, although it did not receive public attention until the Jin-Wen case. The crisis in Taiwan's educational system provides the opportunity to clean up old problems and establish new procedures.

World Recognition
During the past year, Taiwan has achieved good results in combating organized crime. The new administration prohibits any intervention by privileged individuals or political factions on the crackdown of organized crime. This has facilitated investigations, prosecutions, and court decisions, giving the public new hope and confidence.

The human rights report released in February 2001 by the US State Department has confirmed the new administration's efforts in eliminating corruption and pointed out that over the past year political intervention in Taiwan's judicial system has been significantly reduced. In the 2000-2001 Freedom House annual report, Taiwan's fight against organized crime and corruption was listed among the top five major achievements in world freedom.