In recent years, land speculation, a dramatic rise in the price of housing, stock speculation, and a string of scandals involving major public works pro-jects and purchasing have sullied the R.O.C.'s political and economic environment. Political factions and financial consortiums have pushed their interests close to the center of power in the ruling party. These have laid the seeds of the people's discontent. Everywhere one sees petitions for reform. The people are growing more active in their relationship to government.

The people take the lead:

"In a democratic society, where people's votes rule the roost, the government has to follow the lead of the people," says the writer Po Yang, hitting the nail on the head. "Pao Ching-tien," a serial drama about an honest mandarin, has been leading the television ratings war as of late. The battles of the elections for the Legislative Yuan showed that the people want to see something similar on the political stage in Taiwan. Trying to woo people's votes, politicians have been shouting out their lines according to script, trying to be cast as the leads in this new drama.

In such a political climate, politicians, whether of the ruling KMT or the opposition DPP, are all trying to expose scandals in major public works projects and requesting that the government does its best "to root out corruption." An example of what this has led to is a law requiring public officials to declare their financial assets. Although there was some debate about the four "force thems"--force public officials to list their assets, force them to publish the list openly, force them to put these assets in a trusteeship, and force them to be punished if they break these regulations--the law was finally passed.

Besides the Legislative Yuan, which is a major battlefield for the fight against corruption, the Control Yuan has also taken up the fight, focusing on malfeasance by Bureau of Investigation officials and on a scandal involving officials who refused to leave their government housing. Acting on behalf of the people, the Control Yuan has proposed impeachment.

And the numerous rumors of corruption have hit hard at the vast majority of law-abiding and hardworking public servants. "You shouldn't think of us all as thieves!" said one public servant resentfully, who received many expressions of concern from friends when the government unit he worked in was involved in scandal.

The quest for cleanliness and the fight against the corruption of privilege are the hottest topics on the political agenda. But the people's desire for good government may lead to overreaction, the belief that unless the laws are draconian and the officials destitute, something is amiss. Many people regard the Public Employee Asset Declaration Law, with its four "force thems," as one of the harshest laws passed anywhere in the world. Scholars are silently shaking their heads. Difficult to implement, the law will be rendered ineffective, they say, as large sections of it are not enforced.

Many public officials are a step ahead of these laws, publicly declaring their assets before they go into effect. "Snails without a shell," those too poor to afford to buy a house, have grabbed the opportunity to show their moral incorruptibility. But under-reporting was common. It seemed as if everyone was deeply afraid of being wealthy, worried that they would be deemed a "gold bull." Legislator Wang Chien-hsuan directly attacked this warped logic: "Perhaps those with money have full tummies and won't be corrupt, whereas those with no money are just starting to pad their pockets."

The crisis has led to emotional and simplistic dichotomies. Just say that so-and-so is a high-level official in the ruling party and people will say, "a financial consortium gold bull." Just say that someone else is a member of the opposition and people will automatically assume he has great credibility. These are the most common kinds of mistaken presumptions.

Idealism vs. pragmatism:

"The fact of the matter is that all the parties have officials who are truly free from corruption and others who are just using 'clean government' as a slogan," says Lu Yali, a professor of political science at National Taiwan University. "Of course, they all also include those who are privately colluding to make money. At the most it's a difference of degree, but one can't simply say everyone in this or that party is corrupt."

And then there's the matter of who's really squeaky clean and who's putting on a show. Though there's been a lot of arguing about it, there is no doubt that an anti-corruption campaign in government is brewing. It's just that the public has its doubts about how long this pot will stay on the front burner. Can the current mess in government be sorted out? Can government return to being clean and just?

On this point, Wang Chien-hsuan, a legislator and one of the founders of the New Party, is not optimistic. He describes legislators who mold upright images for themselves through their votes in the Legislative Yuan. Once they get out of the Legislative Yuan and out of the public spotlight, "those who are corrupt are still corrupt," Wang says with resignation. Shao Tsung-hai, an academic who got elected to the National Assembly playing up his image as Mr. Clean, believes that fighting corruption in government is lonely work. With links to neither people nor money, he is disdainful of competing with others for fame. The result is that others are all in little political cliques, sharing benefits, whereas he is a lone soul admiring his own purity.

"Ignore discussions of corruption in the Legislative Yuan, when it will appear as if the forces against corruption are great. Those who think of themselves as clean are often a little haughty, unwilling to make overtures to others and unwilling to accept them. If corruption wasn't in the spotlight, their separate efforts would have no effect. They have a very limited ability to help clean up the current state of affairs," says National Assembly Delegate Shao Tsung-hai, acutely aware of their limitations.

The writer Po Yang says that history shows that if rulers are upstanding, pure and able officials will rise to the top. With those below following their example, the bureaucracy will naturally be clean. Otherwise, being an honest official is a lonely job. "If a good official is blocking people's path to money," Po Yang says, "he may get slandered until he's removed."

There is no scarcity of honest people in the KMT, but they are isolated and don't easily build alliances to make the most of their power. On the other hand, the DPP can call for clean government in the name of the party. "Clean and able government" has been a rallying call for the DPP of late.

At the end of last year, when elections were being held for the Legislative Yuan, Lu Hsiou-yi, the DPP's highest vote-getter in Taipei County with nearly 120,000 votes, would get straight to the point about fighting corruption: "You can tap into the power of people's sentiment." He does not avoid mentioning that people's desire for clean politics will grow until even the DPP is shaken up. At the end of this year in the election for city mayors and county magistrates, the DPP hopes to beat the KMT into a hasty retreat, once again making a rallying call for clean government.

The truth is that the DPP is already facing the test of monied interest groups trying to carve up the party. In the past, the DPP largely attracted political dissidents and those unhappy with the current situation, but now it has turned toward those desiring clean and able government. When choosing potential allies, "discretion in conduct" is naturally given heavy weight. But currently the DPP needs to make friends with everybody in order to gain strength quickly, and the monied interests also want to build bridges to the DPP. Will the DPP keep its promise of staying clean or accept anyone who comes to it out of a desire to consolidate power?

"From the look of it, this test is going to be hard for the DPP to pass," says Huang Kuang-kuo, a professor of psychology at National Taiwan University. On the list of DPP candidates for the year-end elections for mayors and county magistrates, there appeared the name of someone with a scandalous reputation. The choice surprised many.

Similarly, "The New Party," which was formed in August and is now traversing the province try-ing to build alliances, is torn between choosing between the "pragmatism" of taking all seekers or the "idealism" of carefully selecting its pant members.

Starting from the roots:

Perhaps it's just not practical to entrust politicians with working for clean government and against corruption. Recently, Minister of Justice Ma Ying-jeou has proposed the "Take the Knife to Corruption Campaign." Uncomfortable when people start referring to him as an "incorruptible, wise judge," he stresses repeatedly that efforts to fight corruption should rely not on individuals but on the legal system.

History proves when the rooting out of corruption does rely on certain individuals, as soon as they are gone, their policies die. And if the greater environment is not conducive to these policies, even if there is great determination and enforcement, the efforts may all be in vain.

Po Yang points out that when Chiang Chingkuo carried out a clean up of Southern Kiangsi, rooting out drugs, prostitution and corruption, the campaign was very successful. But five years later when Chiang took the same determination and measures to try to carry out economic reforms in Shanghai, his calls ran up against the collusion of officials and business interests, whose monopoly of resources earned them the name "the big tiger." He eventually had to retreat having accomplished nothing.

The linkage of money and governmental power with political factions splitting up their loot, Minister of Examination Wang Tso-yung notes, has not been invented by modern-day Taiwan. Throughout history, to consolidate power or to pacify potential troublemakers, those who have ruled have passed through phases of cooperation and collusion. And when central power is in decline and local power on the rise, government's authority is threatened. If Taiwan's political realm cannot rid itself of this corruption, the opposition parties--with burdens light in their infancies--may be able to keep clean in the short term, but sooner or later they won't be able to help falling into the same pit.

Building Systems:

This may be, but history doesn't have to repeat itself. Wang Tso-yung optimistically holds that the people are savvier now, and there's the media to offer the populace side-line analysis. The media give people a chance to understand and evaluate the government's policies, orders and achievements. Those in government just need to take direct responsibility for the people, using concrete accomplishments to win them over.

Wang Tso-yung at the same time points out that besides a complete overhaul of the political structure, systems are also very important. And in establishing these, one should start from two places. The first is the legal system. The laws are the last line of defense for social justice and the last hope of the people. Only with judicial independence can crimes be tried justly and the people gain faith in government.

While there is often mention made of corrupt low-level officials in Taiwan, the high-level linkages of money and power and exchange of favors are now what worry people most. Wang Tso-yung believes that in most crimes of corruption you can only punish the bad officials taking the bribes. But there is a kind of invisible corruption that does even more to damage people's faith in the fairness of the system: the exchange of political benefits.

"Not carrying out one's duty impartially because of political self-benefit is corruption that people see everyday," says Wang Tso-yung, "and there is no law to punish this crime. This is what's most terrible."

An historical constant:

"Laws can be used to punish corrupt civil servants, but for highranking government officials in charge of administrative affairs, you've got to use the ballot box," Po Yang says.

Modern society is democratic. Since demand to root out corruption rose from the people, if this demand is to become reality, one has got to rely on the electorate. Do the people have this power of appraisal, this ability to pick a truly clean and able government?

While voters are smarter than ever before, the power of money, personal connections and factions hasn't gone away. And hard-to-predict variables always come into play too. An election for mayors and country magistrates will be held at the end of this year, for the Provincial Governor next year, for the Legislative Yuan the year after and finally for the direct election of the president. The voters of the R.O.C. will be masters of their own house and controllers of their own destinies only if in every instance they elect a candidate both popular and principled.

[Picture Caption]

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In the half year that Premier Lien has been in office, his blueprint for "multidimensional implementation of government policy" has made its mark. (Provided by the Government Information Office)

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The political reforms in South Korea and Japan are going ahead at full steam. The R.O.C. would do well to borrow their better points. (photo by Cheng Yuan-ching)

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Premier Lien Chan's Administrative Program

• To scrupulously adhere to the "one China" principle as stated in the Program for National Reunification; to abide by the principle that the Republic of China is a sovereign state; to accept the de facto situation of the temporary separation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
• Not to abandon the ideal of unification, but not to hastily seek formal unification.
• To expedite the Political Parties law and the Sunshine Law to promote openness in the activities of politicians and political organizations, in order to dispel public fears concerning underhand deals and the interference of money power in politics.
• To create a healthy tax system and reform fiscal policy for socially just taxation in accordance with the ability to pay, and an equitable tax burden.
• To improve the environment for investment, actively adjust the structure of industry, consider tax breaks and financial concessions, and assist business people in overcoming their problems.
• To continue implementing the six-year National Development Program, giving priority to development projects while criticalls reviewing consumption projects.
• To eliminate waste, encourage private participation, promote the "user pays" principle, accelerate the privatization of state-run enterprises, and make appropriate use of public borrowing policy and other means to develop sources of funds and to regulate expenditure; but on no account to further increase the planned budget deficit, so as not to compromise financial soundness.
• To expand construction of residential housing to enable middle- and lower-income citizens to buy housing.
• In the field of social welfare, all levels of government should increase their budgets and expand their services to the maximum extent that their financial resources allow.
• To implement a policy of maintaining high-quality armed forces, to adjust the structure of the military, raise the level of personnel training and develop and purchase technologically advanced weapons and equipment, in order to enhance our material and non-material fighting strength.

Source: Executive Yuan Administrative Program Report, and oral reports by Premier Chan.