Letters

The real reason behind Chunghwa Telecom's (中華電信) abortive privatization (Chunghwa to scale back privatization, Sept. 15, page 17) is, as Yeh Chu-Lan (葉菊蘭), minister of transportation and communications says, weak market sentiment. The Minister fails to explain this weakness convincingly, however.

I would attribute the weak market sentiment to the absolutely appalling state of the company's service. Every customer of the state monolith must have noticed the vacuous shift in its service style: instead of being snapped at by secure and insouciant members of staff, one was suddenly offered tea and reluctant sympathy.

I had no reason to complain until I paid for a new line specifically for the company's "HiNet" service about one year ago. I was delivered a cable with a raw, unjacked end for the sum of NT$3000. When I asked about the possibility of a complimentary jack, I was told that that's the way it is and if I wanted anything else I'd have to get it myself -- no frills.

Then, when my computer repeatedly told me the server could not be found, disconnection had occurred and/or that my unchanged configuration needed checking, I found reason to complain.

Chunghwa's response, over a period of six months, was invariably that it was my fault; when I protested that I had little reason to lie to the company I was paying to provide me a service, I was promptly passed on to a supervisor to whom I had to re-explain my complaint.

The latest incident, in September, involved them cutting off my line for non-payment of a June bill. When I asked why they hadn't informed me sooner, they said they had. I protested that I had received no notification either on subsequent bills which I paid, or under separate cover. Nonsense, they retorted.

The supervisor asked me whether I was a foreigner, and when I told him I was, chastised me for "being like that."

Today the phone is back on, but my server is once again lost; messages are only retrieved or sent at the whim of Chunghwa's dodgy equipment and I can't face another struggle session with a service commissar. The service people need retraining and the equipment needs a revolution. This is why Yeh Chu-Lan won't be able to flog off this dinosaur and privatization will have to be "scaled down," unless she pays a scrap dealer to cart it off.

William Meldrum

Taipei

What's fair about welfare?

In "Welfare programs should be top priority" (Sept. 15, page 8), Ku Yeun-wen (古允文) once again reveals the stupidity of socialist commie whining. Doesn't he know that if we give money to poor people they'll just waste it on reproducing themselves and buying food to feed the resultant children?

Three cheers to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) enlightened policies of welfare for the rich who'll spend the money wisely. Chen has realized the truth and is doing his best to help the rich so they can create jobs for the poor.

Chen is right to forget giving the elderly NT$3,000 per month, since they'll only waste it on food and rent. Better to pump billions and billions to prop up the stock market so the rich can create jobs and wealth. Cutting taxes on imported luxury goods like Mercedes and XO brandy helps increase rich peoples' consumption and thus creates jobs for retail workers who can then pay income taxes. Destroying Taiwan's agricultural sector by flooding it with heavily subsidized American agricultural products improves our relations with the US. The farmers can all get jobs in Hsinchu making motherboards and computer chips which is better for Taiwan's "Green Sillycon Island" future.