Last Thursday, Keelung Mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was sentenced to seven years in prison and deprived of his civil rights for eight years after being found guilty of corruption. He had used his position to facilitate a land deal for his own profit.
Last December, when Hsu was running for re-election, he was already under suspicion, but Taipei Mayor and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) campaigned for him anyway and he won. In May, Hsu was formally indicted.
What was Ma's reaction? He refused to revoke Hsu's KMT membership because, he said, being indicted does not constitute guilt.
It is true: Indictment does not constitute guilt. Remember that as Point One.
In the meantime, former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (
The supposed theme of their anti-Chen campaign is "anti-corruption."
But is the president guilty of anything? No.
Has the president been indicted for anything? No.
Still, at Shih's and the pan-blue camp's insistence, a president who has not even been indicted must step down from office. Remember that as Point Two.
Who has been indicted? The president's son-in-law -- on insider trading.
Let us return to Point One. The aspersion of guilt in this case is not on the president but on his son-in-law. For Shih's Red Guard, the president must therefore step down.
We thus move on to Hau Lung-bin (
Hau Lung-bin, however, should not withdraw his candidacy because indictment does not constitute guilt. Besides, it is his father who is under scrutiny, and not him.
And he is KMT.
Ma's position on all of this is hard to define.
He flip-flops depending on who he is talking to. He has apologized and then he has not. He has said that an apology is not necessary.
After all, Hsu was first elected mayor when Lien Chan (
That latter remark may be debatable, but Ma seems to have forgotten we are not comparing corruption with corruption. Instead, we have a convicted, corrupt mayor being held up against a president who has not been convicted or even indicted.
There has been no rush by Shih Ming-teh's Red Guard to the ramparts of Keelung to say that justice has been done, that corruption has been found, and that Hsu Tsai-li should be hung from the highest tree.
As a matter of fact, we have heard no mention of the search for corruption in Keelung on in any other area where a pan-blue candidate is in office or in the running.
Point Three, therefore, is more of a question than a point: How long should the people of Taipei and Taiwan put up with the foolishness, hypocrisy and disruptiveness of Shih Ming-teh's Red Guard?
How long should the city have to pay for extra police hours, trash collection and obstruction of traffic and city services to satisfy the ego of a man who has long been out of a job, a man who has not won an election in over eight years but who hankers desperately for the limelight?
Jerome Keating is a Taiwan-based writer.
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