COMMENTARY
Scandals offer chance to show how reform works

By Tom Plate

We used to think the United States was all but immune to dastardly sins plaguing other cultures. Certainly, and perhaps most notably, our proven ability to pass the torch of power from one government to another, without spilling a drop of blood, was worthy of emulation.

Indeed, such is happening in Asia more and more. A significant example is Malaysia. Just recently, Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister since 1981, announced that he'd be stepping down before too long. Similarly, Singapore, though also dominated by one party, led the way more than a decade ago, when its founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, moved aside for the younger Goh Tok Chong. In South Korea, political parties are gearing up for a vigorous December election campaign to replace President Kim Dae-jung, prohibited by the Constitution from repeating his five-year term. This used to be a hard-nosed military dictatorship.

Of course, in some countries, the torch is passed all too frequently.

Japan, for example, had so many different prime ministers in the '90s that Clinton administration officials used to joke that ''we'd just figure out how to pronounce his name, and then he'd be gone.''

Even so, America can take pride in this proper emulation of civilized polity. Almost certainly, South Korea will not revert to its brutal military ways. The Japanese have anti-militarism embedded in their Constitution. Even China is changing its government at the top while going about its business of improving the economy, trying to develop better relations with Taiwan and to placate the United States.

Will someone give these countries some credit?

Yet a kind word for Asia is not the same as a knock on the United States. Both cultures can benefit from understanding — and should certainly stop trashing — each other. Reflect, for a moment, on the bitter and frightening Asian financial crisis (1997-99). Remember Washington's frequent public mantra at the time: the need for corporate openness and accounting integrity. Almost daily, some Treasury official was delivering a public lecture on how Asian business practices were deficient and untrustworthy.

So are Asians laughing or crying now over President Bush's urgent speech on the need for greater U.S. corporate responsibility?

Here's a pious-preaching nation that now has to admit it has dirty hands. Isn't it obvious that America, the greatest nation in the world, should learn some humility?

Here's what I mean. When the Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals surfaced — and now allegations are surfacing about Bristol-Myers Squibb and Qwest, the U.S telecommunications company, not to mention WorldCom and Xerox — they triggered the memory of a private dinner in 1998 arranged in Washington by a well-known Southeast Asian ambassador for her visiting prime minister. Those invited were representatives of U.S. media institutions — from the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek to the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and so on.

After a bit of time, a prominent U.S. editor rather rudely broached the issue of why ''crony capitalism'' seemed to be reaching epidemic proportions in Asia.

The Asian prime minister, a brilliant, soft-spoken man, hardly knew what to say, so insulting was the question.

Suddenly, another journalist broke the awkward silence:

''Right, crony capitalism,'' he said, sarcastically. ''We have nothing whatsoever like that in the States.'' Those around the media table grunted unanimously. Then that same dissenting journalist added: ''Or do we have something similar in the United States?''

An embarrassed gasp, a soulful minute of reflection.

"Just maybe we have a different name for it. We call it campaign contributors.''

Let's face it: Avarice and corporate deception are the monopoly of no one culture. In the United States, the issues of transparency, accountability and deceptive accounting now appear to reach to the very top levels of government. They also raise disturbing questions about the ethical climate of the U.S. business culture.

Thus, the true greatness of America is yet to come: How well will it cope with these difficult questions via reform, legislation and self-reflection? If it is successful, it will set an example for the world at least as significant as its forthright effort in the war on terrorism.

And that would be truly worth crowing — maybe even preaching — about.

Tom Plate, a columnist with The Honolulu Advertiser and the South China Morning Post, is a professor at UCLA. Reach him at tplate@ucla.edu. He also has a spot on the Web.