In Taiwan, such gray areas bordering the public and private domains take on another dimension.

Ma Ying-jeou's double capacity as leader of both the country and the ruling Kuomintang may facilitate the running of the government. But the two roles could also interfere with each other.

The KMT power core — the Central Standing Committee (CSC) — is already a mix of the public and private, running both the country and the party.

Now the wrath of the KMT chairman over vote-buying in internal party elections is influencing the president, who is looking to have government officials come up with solutions to solve his problems “at home.”

Ma has always been unhappy with “bribery” accompanying KMT's internal elections. Such bribery often takes the form of gifts — which are not necessarily expensive ones, but rather a goodwill gesture.

The last time he was chairman four years ago, he often made it clear that no bribery should be tolerated in internal elections.

But at the time he had yet to establish his authority, and his aspiration for the presidency still needed strong support from fellow KMT members. His words apparently fell on deaf ears.

Earlier this month, Ma, as president of the country, took the helm of the KMT again.

This time he turned his anger at bribery into swift action by axing two freshly elected members to the CSC for sending gifts to voters.

The incident then snowballed into a campaign — with full blessing from the chairman — that saw all CSC members resign to show support of reform to the party, and their pledge of loyalty to the party chief.

The KMT is now preparing for a new election for the decision-making party and about a dozen party members have been banned from entering the race for having “bribed” voters in the last poll.

That is not the end of the story. Ma is looking to make sure there will not be a repeat.

As a lawyer who has shown strong faith in the rule of law, he apparently believes the law will be the solution.

He is seeking to criminalize “bribery” in political parties' internal elections.

An election law is already in place that punishes vote-buyers in party primaries for public elections. But there are no laws banning bribery in elections for internal party posts.

In a recent interview with a Chinese-language weekly magazine, Ma said it has long been the party's policy to reform internal 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.