Given the staggering amount of national debt, the legislature should pass laws to prevent “fat cat” politicians from benefiting from government subsidies for political campaigns, veteran political activist Shih Ming-te (施明德) said yesterday.
Shih, who is planning to run in January’s presidential election, said the subsidies have become an alternative source of income for many politicians, but that it is not right for taxpayers to have to fund these politicians every election.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) appears to have benefited the most from the subsidies, raking in NT$480 million (US$14.57 million at current exchange rates) from his participation in two Taipei mayoral elections and two presidential elections, while former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) ranked second with NT$380 million.
“Some candidates know they have no chance of winning, but continue to run anyway,” and the lure of such easy money is to blame, Shih said.
The subsidies are then laundered through the politicians’ parties or through their personal foundations or businesses, becoming an incentive toward crime, Shih said.
The central government’s debt has reached NT$24 trillion and adding to this by paying election subsidies of NT$30 for every vote a candidate wins is too much, Shih said.
The government paid NT$600 million in subsidies for the 2012 presidential and legislative elections and NT$1 billion for the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 29 last year, he said.
The subsidy policy has its roots in the early days following the lifting of martial law, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was the wealthiest political party in the world, while the newly formed Democratic Progressive Party had nothing and the public was afraid to donate to it.
Taiwan’s democratization and the legalizing of fund-raising means the subsidy policy has played its part in history and is no longer necessary, Shih said.
Corporate donations to political parties have replaced the subsidy, he said.
Politicians should back calls for the legislature to amend Article 43 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) in time for January’s elections, he said.
Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) later commented on Shih’s claims, saying that none of the NT$436 million Ma received for his two presidential bids went into his personal accounts, adding that all the funds had been itemized by the KMT, receipts were issued to donors and had been listed in Ma’s annual asset report to the Ministry of the Interior in the respective years.
Additional reporting by CNA
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