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Cain Nunns | 8 June 2012 06:16 Global Post

Taiwanese politics: gangsters’ paradise?

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Former lawmaker Lo Fu-chu is notorious for a few things. Heading one of the
island’s largest crime syndicates and beating up opposition legislators chief among them.

Now you can add one more item to that list: fugitive. The former judiciary committee czar failed to turn
himself in for a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and insider trading in late April.



Observers say the scandal surrounding Lo Fu-chu — who infamously attacked a female legislator during
a live TV broadcast and allegedly had another lawmaker abducted, blindfolded, stripped naked, locked in
a dog cage and dumped on the side of a road — is yet another embarrassing example of the confluence
of organized crime, politics and big business in the island republic.

Organized crime’s infiltration into politics is not unique to Taiwan. What makes the situation in Taiwan
unique, however, is that gangsters here don't just bribe the politicians — they become them.



Chao Yung-mao, an expert on Taiwan politics and the mob at National Taiwan University, told GlobalPost in
2010 that about 15 to 20 percent of local township and county councilors and township heads are
gangsters. The numbers are especially large in rural central and southern Taiwan, where traditions and
old-boy networks still run strong.

It’s not uncommon for high-profile politicians to turn up at the extravagant funerals and weddings of mobsters.
In some cases the festivities and processions are so large that an entire city grinds to a standstill for hours at a
time. Then, there is the violence — the worst of which began in the late 1990s, during a period of rampant
corruption called "black gold" politics. During that time, elected officials were gunned down, and at times,
committed murders themselves.



In 2008, Lo Fu-chu’s son, KMT lawmaker and judiciary committee heavyweight Lo Ming-tsai, was implicated in
Celestial Way business when two gangsters were shot — one fatally — in his office following a late night altercation
at a karaoke bar. The younger Lo has denied any links to organized crime.

In 2010, Sean Lien, a KMT lawmaker and scion of powerful former party chairman Lien Chen, was shot in the face
at a campaign rally by a mobster. The gangster later claimed he was targeting a different politician over a land deal
gone wrong.

But it’s not all bad.

Despite the corruption and the violence, some pundits say that gangster-politicians in rural constituencies actually
score high marks for governance because they are able to leverage national votes into infrastructure and services
spending in their communities.