Editorial: A disaster never to be repeated

Some of our readers may still remember the Taipei street protests of May 1997, sparked by the April kidnapping and murder of TV entertainer Pai Ping-ping's (白冰冰) daughter. Tens of thousands of angry protesters (most of them middle-class) staged three demonstrations in a row in front of the Presidential Office building to demand the government apologize for the deterioration in public security. They used spotlights to project the characters for "apologize" (謝罪) onto the building's walls.

The Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) government, in the first year of its democratically-elected term of office -- and perhaps still intoxicated by its election victory -- had not paid much attention to a series of prominant murder cases and the growing anger of the people. As a result, its credibility hit rock bottom with the Pai case, just one year after taking office. By the time the government leaders realized the gravity of the issue, it was too late.

The cavalier attitude of the government at the time was seen as a typical example of the KMT's "power-arrogance." Whether the Pai murder and the subsequent protests had a direct causal relationship with the KMT's fall from power this year is open to debate -- but it undoubtedly contributed to its defeat.

Perhaps those incidents cannot be put on a par with Saturday's disaster in Chiayi County, where four workers were washed away by the rising floodwaters of the Pachang Creek -- after waiting, arm-in-arm, for three hours for help that never came. However, Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) government's should learn from its predecessor's mistakes and take action to ensure that such a clearly-preventable tragedy is not repeated.

Chen has learned at least one lesson from the KMT's defeat. In fact, Chen has been working so hard since taking office to stay in touch with the grass-roots level of society that he has been ridiculed by opposition parties for thinking he is still on the campaign trail. But no matter how hard Chen works, one disaster is all it takes to seriously damage his administration.

The government has already taken responsibility and apologized for Saturday's incident and given administrative punishments those deemed to be negligent. But blaming Chen's government is patently absurd, given that it has only been in office for two months. It is ridiculous to think, as some have charged, that Chen has been "intoxicated by the bliss of power" and forgotten the suffering of the people. The shirking of responsibility between the air force and police rescue units, which caused the fatal delay in launching a rescue mission, is the result of long-standing structural problems. It is a clear legacy of the Chiang (蔣) and Lee eras.

The Chen government cannot possibly be expected to have already cleaned up the political trash that has accumulated over half a century. Therefore, we believe the new government should not shoulder all the blame. The real culprits are the institutionalized bureaucracy and structural defects left by the KMT's rule. The new government, however, must spare no effort in correcting such structural defects; otherwise it may face further setbacks. Officials who fail to do their jobs or do not want to see reforms made should be allowed to leave; civil service units should be reorganized.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has criticized Chen for "being too much of a bully." But this is exactly the kind of unyielding determination needed to carry out structural reforms. We fully support Chen in his efforts to weed out officials unfit for their positions. We hope the Pachang Creek tragedy will jolt the new government into quick, but effective action.