Volume 46, Number 2 · February 4, 1999
Sex and Democracy in Taiwan
By Ian Buruma
Fairly or not, sex scandals in politics have acquired a peculiarly Anglo-Saxon ring. The French boast of taking a more sophisticated view of the private lives of public men—that is to say, those lives are shielded from public scrutiny. Germans smack their lips when their betters stray but do not let this behavior get in the way of politics. (The British smack their lips too, even as they bring their culprits down.) Many Asian strongmen have positively reveled in being cocks of the walk. When a blackmailer once threatened President Sukarno with photographs of the Indonesian leader striking up an intimate acquaintance with several Parisian hookers, Sukarno told him to make sure every Indonesian saw them at once. It could only enhance his reputation. To be sure, a Japanese prime minister was once forced to resign when his girlfriend, a minor geisha, made trouble, but that was because he wasn't paying her enough money to remain discreet, and not because extramarital sex was considered a bad thing in itself.
Feature, 1505 words
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