After seeing this, that Taiwan's Lawmakers halve benefits for ex-presidents, apparently a result of party politics, I am not optimistic that Taiwan's corruption situation will improve, whichever party will be in power after Bian.
Why? The most effective measure against corruption is to provide those in power with the financial compensation they deserve, so that they would not worry about living comfortable lives during and after their tenure. Taking away the retirement benefits is a hint to ask the president in power to prepare for his future on his own.
Taiwan is not US, ex-president cannot make quarter million US$ for a single speech. There is just no such scale in the speech/PR business. Even if there is, the government should still make sure the officials are worry-free, especially financially. This also applies to officials of all level.
There are wealthy politicians for whom the stipends are immaterial, such as Berlusconi or Lien Chan. Does Taiwanese people want to be ruled by such people? I do not doubt that successful businessmen makes more competent politicans, but the population base for rich people is just too small to provide the leaders we need.
The single most important reason for the cleanliness of Singapore and HK is the competitive salary packages for public servants. When Ma Ying-Jeou visited Singapore 2 months ago, Did he bothered to pick Lee Kuan Yew's brain? Had he bothered to pay Lee Kuan Yew a visit and asked the proper question, he would not have made such a major mistake.
I admire Ma's courage in admitting mistakes, and in doing the right things. I also believe he did nothing wrong in supporting the recall, even though tactically it may not serve the best benefit to himself or KMT. However, Ma is not perfect, he does fall into the complacency trap from time to time, first by being ambiguous in Taitung's election, now in this ex-president benefit fiasco.
Corruption is an economical symptom. It should be solved economically. Being a clean and competent lawyers is easy (for Ma), build a good legal structure and comptetent anti-corruption team is important, but that alone cannot solve the problem.
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