Care needed in using public law for private elections

He said he will seek to make a political law or revise the election law to govern parties' internal races.

This time, party members have been quick to react in favor of his suggestion. A few KMT legislators have already proposed changes to the law in line with Ma's ideas.

The interior minister has already agreed to work out proposed laws to achieve the purpose.

Vote-buying or bribery is not a moral thing to do, but legally speaking, it is debatable whether public authorities should intervene in such behavior occurring in the private domain.

Law enforcement officials necessarily would have to be enlisted in investigating vote-buying allegations. This does not only mean the enlisting of national resources to settle private matters, but would also lead to serious political implications and ramifications.

By putting political parties' internal elections under legal scrutiny, it would be legitimate for investigators and prosecutors to monitor each and every single internal race that a party holds.

Their authority could be easily abused. An anonymous letter alleging vote-buying could be enough for law enforcement officials to launch a probe and distort the course of an internal party election.

A law criminalizing vote-buying in internal party elections could become a tool for political persecution. Taiwan is a democratic country, but it has yet to prove that its rule of law is mature enough to prevent political persecution.

Former President Chen Shui-bian's claims that political persecution is behind the corruption charges against him may not be true.

But the fact that he can make such claims and that many of his supporters do believe him shows that political persecution remains a fear factor in Taiwan politics.

Ma should work to get rid of that fear factor, rather than fuel it.

Ma, in that magazine interview, said the KMT is no longer the party it was in the past — meaning it is able to reform itself.

If it is really able to reform itself, then it will not need outside authority to force the reform.

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