One would have hoped that the terrible flooding to hit southern Taiwan over the past few days would have led the pan-blue camp to temporarily put aside their ridiculous attempt to force the president from office and focus their energies on helping people protect their livelihoods, an issue that they repeatedly claim to be concerned about.
But in actual fact the flooding and destruction caused by a week of torrential rain has only served to highlight the selfishness of the pan-blue camp, the weakness of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
Taiwan regularly suffers serious flooding, yet the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) flood-control bill has been stuck in the legislature for more than a year thanks to the pan-blue camp's filibustering and petty bickering. Their refusal to pass the bill and their linking its passing to that of their own partisan interest bills are really quite scandalous.
Last October, the KMT even had the gall to accuse the DPP of using the flood-control scheme to "buy votes," saying that most of the budget would be spent in DPP-held counties. Are they seriously suggesting that floodwater knows how to distinguish between a pan-blue and a pan-green supporter's house or farm?
In the meantime, a year has been wasted, time that could have been spent redirecting waterways, constructing flood channels and protecting farmland and homes that have been flooded again this week.
Then on Sunday Ma announced that the flood-prevention bill (the same bill that the KMT and its allies have blocked for more than a year) was now suddenly at the top of the legislature's agenda for its special session. Yet one day later, KMT lawmakers demonstrated the emptiness of Ma's words and what little control he has over his party caucus by giving top priority to the presidential recall bid.
Ma also castigated the government over its flood response, saying that what people needed was immediate relief, and that the flood-prevention bill was unrelated to this as it was only intended to prevent future disasters. Surely Ma must be aware that once a prevention scheme is complete, it ideally eliminates the need for relief operations.
Ma added that the public didn't need the government putting senior officials in front of TV cameras on inspection tours as these kinds of visits disrupt relief efforts and that he personally didn't partake in such behavior.
This criticism is rich, coming from the same man who was in charge of Taipei City's shamefully inept performance during Typhoon Nari in 2001, when the city suffered its worst flooding for over 50 years.
Ma's response then was to apologize repeatedly and blame the problems on the unprecedented amount of rain rather than poor infrastructure or the city authority's glacial response to the downpour.
And, in case you were wondering where Ma made these comments, it was while he was on an inspection tour of the flood-affected areas with senior officials.
The government has already done much to prevent flooding over the last six years with projects like the Yuanshanzih Flood Diversion Project that became operational last year. It diverts large amounts of water from the Keelung River basin and protects Taipei City from suffering a repeat of the Nari scenario.
The KMT must realize that only by dropping its doomed-to-fail recall bid and negotiating with the government on the flood-control and other livelihood bills will it be fulfilling its promise to look after the "common man."
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