As a country struggling to cement its democratization, Tai-wan yearns for more discipline, structure and order in all aspects of life. Upset with political corruption, crime and a sense of political chaos and instability, voters are looking for strength and leadership. While the public seeks a reform-minded leader, the path toward reform always meets with tremendous challenges and resistance.
The cause of many of these problems is the influence of vested interests, while some result from a lack of effective coordination and policy implementation by the government.
The Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration's handling of the reform of farmers and fishermen's cooperatives is a classic case of so-called reform syndrome. The key to the fiasco lies largely in Chen's leadership.
In the first two years of his administration, most voters felt that Chen was a caring, hardworking person who had shown great courage with his outspoken-ness and the positions he had adopted. His slowness to act on his promises was largely the result of the opposition blocking him on almost every matter. The watchword "Chen deserves another chance" contributed to the DPP's victory in the last legislative election.
With his electoral mandate, it should have been easy for Chen to apply his strengths to domestic problems. But strong leadership must be accompanied by the ability to persuade the public on key policy areas. Because the farmers' and fishermen's cooperatives have long been filled with KMT cadres, the reform of such cooperatives was always bound to meet resistance, especially when it came to questions of political interests.
What caused the government to mishandle the policy was its failure to develop specific proposals and to use the publicity Chen is capable of generating in the media to press home the case for reform. To maximize public support, Chen and his Cabinet should have developed mechanisms to coordinate policy making and policy implementation.
These mechanisms should have included the strengthening of the functions of the legislative liaison office, the improvement of cooperation with other opposition parties in accordance with a specific agenda and, most importantly, the use of the media to educate the public on the full significance of the reforms. Chen's dramatic about-face in postponing the implementation of the policy undermined the credibility of the Executive Yuan.
That Chen felt under heavy pressure from the agricultural constituency was understandable, but his announcement of the change of policy by calling the Executive Yuan to take full responsibility did not solve the problem. Rather, it has led to a Cabinet reshuffle.
Chen should keep in mind that a politician does not need public support just to win elections; he needs it to govern. An elected executive -- whether president, governor, or mayor -- needs a popular majority every day of his term.
Keeping a majority does not mean abandoning one's princi-ples. It means caring enough about how you explain yourself to get the nation behind you. But when presidents take bold steps and don't explain them properly, they aren't doing their job. The credit cooperatives demonstrate the need for Chen to provide comprehensive explanations of the pros and cons of the case before implementing policy. It also shows the importance negotiating solutions.
Leadership entails a dynamic tension between where a politician thinks his country must go and where his voters want it to go. Bold initiatives that leave the voters behind are not acts of leadership but of self-indulgent arrogance. Let us hope that Chen and the government have learned this lesson.
Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry