UNITED DAILY NEWS:

Ma Yung-cheng's confessions: the laments of a top aide Ma Yung-cheng, a former top aide to ex-President Chen Shui-bian who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, recently gave an interview in which he talked about his fall from grace after reaching the pinnacle of his career.

Ma started as a leader of the student movement at National Taiwan University. He had served as Chen's aide since his 20s, and as Chen's right hand man, he had since experienced a meteoric rise.

The interview revealed his misgivings about Chen, but he showed little remorse concerning his role in the former president's legal violations and transgressions.

In the eyes of Ma, who served as deputy secretary general to Chen from 2005 to 2006, the former president was guilty of only two things -- one was to transfer illegal gains overseas and the other was that he had opportunities to handle the matter but did not do so because he could not persuade his wife to remit the money back.

Due to such perceptions, Ma is still unable to properly examine himself.

He said that "in helping Chen maintain his power and run the nation, I always considered issues from his point of view. Upon reflection, I feel that I've done all right." Ma wanted to stress his loyalty, but he is not pledging allegiance to the nation or his political ideals or even to his duty, but to Chen alone. Can't he see how far Chen reneged upon his presidential duty?

CHINA TIMES:

Will and resolve to survive game-fixing scandal Up to 11 players of the popular Brother Elephants are now involved in a snowballing game-fixing scandal, and the professional baseball team has discontinued its contracts with the manager and star players.

We think the government and the private sector should work together to rebuild an environment that will make this "national pastime" viable.

Hence, we have made the following suggestions, hoping that the incident will be the end of game-fixing instead of the straw that broke the camel's back.

First and foremost, the government should declare war against gambling syndicates. All of us know that these syndicates not only involve bookmakers, but also gangsters, elected officials and even rogue judicial personnel. To deter a game from being rigged, efforts must not only target the bookmakers but the syndicate as a whole.

Second, prosecutors should treat the incident as a major case, speed up the probe, and close the case quickly.

Third, the legislature should raise the prison terms for fixing games to deter cheats.

Fourth, major enterprises should sponsor various levels of baseball teams to create a win-win situation for both teams and the businesses.

Fifth, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) should give its president substantive power to call the shots based on the model of the commissioner of U.S. Major League Baseball so that he can take the CPBL to a new level.

Six, CPBL teams should set aside their parochial interests to engage in real reform.

Seven, all professional baseball players should join a union to strengthen discipline and rediscover their ideals when they join teams.

Fans should also dispel the myth of trying to keep the Elephants or the CPBL afloat and demand that these efforts focus on creating a wholesome environment for the normal development of the sport rather than on one individual team.

LIBERTY TIMES:

Use referendum to dismiss coercive acts against the people Since the Department of Health announced 10 days ago that Taiwan's market would open wider to U.S. beef, the public has repeatedly called for a dismissal of the protocol and for a re-opening of talks on beef with Washington.

But the government has turned a deaf ear to the public outcry and formalized the U.S. imports as scheduled.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has recently cited an official Web site of the U.S. state of Nebraska, which claimed that 180 days after the protocol takes effect, the restrictions on U.S. beef under 30 months should be reviewed and a full opening will be considered.

The public is being kept in the dark about the matter, showing that the protocol with the U.S. will not be an end, but the beginning of more humiliation.

During the previous DPP administration, if there was one incident of mad cow disease, then Taiwan could ban U.S. beef imports. But now, Taiwan will allow the entry of bone-in beef, offal and ground beef, and it agreed to the condition that even if there is a case of mad cow disease, it would have to wait for the World Organization of Animal Health to lower the risk status of the U.S. before we could suspend imports.

The public may have regrets about choosing Ma Ying-jeou as their leader one year ago. But it is now too late to say that. The urgent task is to initiate a referendum to reverse the administrative decree by the government.

APPLE DAILY:

Patriarchal mentality of the NCC

In any democratic country, when the governments are faced with a dilemma on whether to control public affairs, they usually adopt a free hand attitude if the issues involved do not pose a serious and immediate threat to the public interest.

But Taiwan is a young democracy, and its government has yet to learn such wisdom and has inadvertently revealed its long-standing authoritative traits.

Democratic countries act based on the following principles when considering public affairs: acting legally, clearly defining actions to prevent disputes, and making sure measures are viable.

The recent controversy surrounding rulings on embedded advertising by the National Communications Commission has been mainly due to its failure to follow those principles.

When asked why TV programs introducing new works by cultural observer Lung Ying-tai and and artist Cai Guo-Qiang are not considered embedded advertising while others are, the NCC replied that those programs explored issues related to the public interest.

The NCC should clearly define embedded advertising and its relationship to the public interest and then defend its decision based on such a definition. Otherwise, it will give rise to misgivings that the NCC is adopting double standards.

We hope that the NCC will focus on major issues rather than delving into minor trivialities. An NCC member complained that whatever the commission does, it invokes criticism. But it should not operate erratically simply out of fear of criticism because arbitrary governance could hurt itself and others and violate the Constitution.

By Lilian Wu)