With regard to policy toward China, the new government should broaden consensus between the ruling and opposition parties. Instead, it insists on its own view. With regard to economic policy, the new government should take the lead in putting forth a plan, but it's bogged down with a wait-and-see policy instead. The situation in which the government talks wildly about policies that it should handle with humility and passively handles policies that it should actively pursue, is a natural target for criticism.
Chen needs Roosevelt-style boldness with the courage to suit the remedy to the case when facing problems and the gusto to break through the status quo when challenged by crisis. Confronted by the unprecedented Great Depression, Roosevelt acted decisively beginning from March 6, 1933. In 100 days, the US Congress passed 70 new pieces of legislation, including 15 pieces of major legislation, and completely turned around the country's economic crisis.
Roosevelt's boldness caused his political enemies to stand in awe of him.The most famous right-wing commentator of the period, Walter Lippman, who was a long-term opponent of Roosevelt, felt moved to say after the first 100 days of the new government, "at the end of February we were still a rabble of frightened mobsters and religious groups. But after going through these 100 days, we have once again become an organized nation with confidence that we have the power to guarantee our own security and control our own fate."
Roosevelt's 100 days of reform overcame the American people's crisis of confidence. Roosevelt was able to do it. Can Chen Shui-bian? Time is running out for Taiwan's economy. If the new government continues to delay, worrying about every step and earning criticism at every turn, then history's judgment may be even crueler than the opposition alliance.
Julian Kuo is an associate professor of political science at Soochow University.
translated by Ethan Harkness
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