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EDITORIAL: State
seems to be campaigning hard
Have all state resources become campaign tools for President Ma Ying-jeou’s
(馬英九) re-election bid? This appears to be a valid concern in light of a recent
series of incidents which suggest the possible exploitation of government
resources for partisan gain.
First, it was reported that in a notice recently mailed by the Ministry of the
Interior to low-income and disadvantaged families informing them of the new
social welfare subsidies, which come into effect on Sunday, the ministry made
special mention of Ma’s name, with Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺)
saying in the opening paragraph that the program was made possible “under
President Ma’s directive.” Similar phrases of praise were also spotted in
letters of notification mailed out by other agencies, such as the Council of
Labor Affairs, informing the public of new policies which also take effect on
Sunday.
Despite previous notification letters seldom giving a president credit for
implementing new subsidy programs, it is little wonder that under the Ma
government such phrases appeared in the letters mailed out by agencies.
Then came an even more absurd piece of news on Tuesday: That former deputy
legislative speaker Yao Eng-chi (饒穎奇), who once served in the military police,
reportedly delivered a speech at the Military Police Command on Dec. 10 in
support of Ma’s re-election bid. Whatever happened to the armed forces’ repeated
calls for personnel to maintain administrative neutrality?
This is not the end of it. Just when one wonders how the government can get more
ridiculous, it was reported yesterday that a group of prosecutors intercepted a
tour bus in Greater Kaohsiung, claiming they had received a tip-off that the
passengers, returning from a wedding banquet in Taipei, had actually been on an
outing in exchange for supporting the pan-green camp. It was only after the
passengers produced video clips of the wedding showing that no pan-green
candidates attended the event, but rather a pan-blue candidate, that the
prosecutors stopped their questioning and left.
Granted, the prosecutors might very well have been doing their job — probing
vote-buying allegations. However, by virtue of doing their job, weren’t they
supposed to first verify the tip before launching an action that harassed people
and created a public impression that a particular political camp is engaging in
illegal campaign actions?
Last, but not least, Next Magazine carried a report yesterday alleging that the
National Security Council head acted beyond his scope by instructing the
Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau to monitor Democratic Progressive
Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) campaign information.
One can’t help but wonder whether all spheres of government — including the
administration, judiciary and intelligence services — have now been caught in a
certain political camp’s claws, in which they exploit government resources for a
certain individual’s and party’s gain — and more despicably, using taxpayers’
money to do so.
Maybe it is time the president and his government revisit the meaning of the
term administrative neutrality and prove to the Taiwanese that they can walk the
walk.
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