President Ma Ying-jeou, accompanied by Vice President Wu Den-yih and Premier Sean C. Chen (陳冲), attended a seminar on clean government held by the Ministry of Justice's Agency Against Corruption and participated by the government leaders and officials on the morning of July 7. In remarks at the event, the president stated that he was deeply saddened by the bribery scandal involving former Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Yi-shih (林益世). President Ma proclaimed that the government, in an effort to regain the public's trust, will re-examine its mechanisms for preventing and punishing corruption.
The following are the remarks made by the president:
Today I attend this conference on clean government with a heavy heart. We are holding today's meeting in part to discuss the considerable impact on the administration caused by the bribery scandal involving former Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Yi-shih. This event has not only cost Mr. Lin his future, but also has shaken the public's trust in the government, tarnished the image of the nation, and brought shame on the entire administration.
However, crisis offers an opportunity to do some critical reflection, and to derive some sort of benefit from this unfortunate incident. The object of today's conference is to re-examine each link and each screw in the nation's mechanisms for the prevention and punishment of corruption. By doing so, we can find the shortcomings in the system, in the use of personnel, and in regular evaluations of performance, which have led to the recent events and dealt a considerable blow to those of us in the administration who embrace the core value of clean government.
Everyone is aware that clean government has been a core value of mine and a fundamental objective for my administration since I join the government. It is also a goal that I will always embrace. Since taking office, I have sought to create a clean and competent government. These efforts have been successful, with the number of cases involving corrupt civil servants having declined considerably. As a reflection of this, Transparency International in its 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, which offers a rating of 183 countries and areas around the world, assigned Taiwan a score of 6.1 points, which was the highest in 17 years for the nation. Taiwan's overall ranking rose to 32nd from 39th, and last year marked the third consecutive rise in Taiwan's ranking.
All of these hard-won accomplishments, however, have suddenly been overshadowed by the corruption scandal involving Mr. Lin. I was shocked and deeply saddened when I first learned of the matter. After getting over the initial sadness, however, I knew that what was even more important was to act with determination and adopt concrete actions to redouble our commitment to clean government.
Ever since becoming minister of justice 19 years ago, I have deeply sensed the importance of the public's trust in the government. But nothing is more corrosive to this trust than corruption. The administration has worked for many years to build public trust in the government, but unfortunately this trust may have disappeared overnight as the result of the scandal.
When dealing with cases of possible corruption, we must handle things by "actively uncovering the corruption, rapidly dealing with it, cooperating with investigations, and keeping the public informed." The most important thing is the attitude of government leaders. We should not be afraid to air our dirty laundry in public, so to speak. In particular, honesty is the best policy, and as long as we take the initiative to uncover corruption and keep the public informed in a timely manner, the public will not lose its trust in the government. However, if we stonewall and delay, we will only cause the public's perception of the government to deteriorate.
When I was elected as chairman of the Kuomintang in 2005, I specially urged all party members to always keep three goals in mind: maintaining clean government, being diligent in our work, and caring about the public good. I called on everyone to operate under the principles of "no vote buying," "implementing government without corruption," and "maintaining corruption-free politics." Today, I must admit, I cannot guarantee that all officials in the government and all party members have abided by these three points. I can guarantee, however, that as long as I am in office, I will make sure that investigative agencies vigorously investigate and heavily penalize corrupt civil servants, without regard for party affiliation. There will absolutely be no cover-ups or any grey areas in this effort.
With respect to the corruption involving Mr. Lin, I can also guarantee that investigative agencies will make every effort and get to the bottom of things, regardless how many people are involved in this scandal, how high the officials in the government may be, and how widely its implications might extend. The administration will spare no effort in defending its commitment to clean government. Mr. Lin's corruption has dealt the administration a severe blow. Today, with 44 government leaders gathering together, I hope that everyone can address this issue in an honest manner, forge consensus on these issues, and immediately adopt measures to prevent corruption and foster clean government. At the same time, today's conference offers the government an opportunity to start afresh and work to re-capture the trust of the public.
Following the president's remarks, the government leaders and administrative officials divided into groups to discuss the government's present mechanism to prevent and punish corruption, and reforms that should be adopted in the future. The officials aired concrete suggestions, and the president not only participated in all of the proceedings, but also received briefings on the issues discussed.
President Ma then issued five directives. First, he said that "clean government meetings" should be held at government agencies once every two months, with each agency's leader personally presiding over the meetings. Second, he said that each government agency should establish a "clean government quality control loop." Once this mechanism is instituted, whenever a major ethics incident arises, the head of the agency as well as that agency's ethics office shall also bear responsibility. Third, the president said it is not enough that government leaders themselves are not involved in corruption; they also must ensure that their staff are not involved in any corrupt practices, either. At the same time, safety and privacy must be ensured for whistle-blowers, he said. Fourth, President Ma said that the Executive Yuan shall, within the next two months, establish a mechanism to put lobbying and requests by constituents for assistance on a systematic and transparent footing, so that government officials will know exactly what they can and cannot do when performing their administrative duties and handling requests from constituents and lobbyists. And fifth, the president said that all agencies with judicial investigative authority need to establish a cooperation mechanism for the prevention and punishment of corruption, so that it is impossible to get away with corrupt behavior.
Lastly, the president reiterated to the assembled persons his core commitment to the "four no's" of civil servant conduct, whereby each official: (1) has no desire to be corrupt, as he himself is clean; (2) has no need to be corrupt, as his salary is already sufficient; (3) has no opportunity to be corrupt, as a comprehensive legal framework prevents it; and 4) won't dare to be corrupt, as penalties for corruption are severe.
Among the officials attending the conference were Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), Secretary-General to the President Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), and Deputy Secretary-General to the President Hsiung Kuang-hua (熊光華).