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Editorial: Fuel makes a fool of foundation

In recent months the private Consumers' Foundation has been making an increasingly embarrassing spectacle of itself.

This trend shows no sign of reversing itself now that the foundation is targeting the Executive Yuan over the price of fuel and the knock-on effect that this has on various goods and services.

Monitoring the quality and value of commercial and other products is an essential process in a modern, industrialized society in which quality and value cannot be assumed to be articles of faith between merchant and consumer.

Taiwan's government has traditionally favored employers and manufacturers over employees and consumers. In this kind of environment there is indeed a role that private advocacy groups can play, especially since government agencies such as the Fair Trade Commission have set bureaucratic ways in dealing with violations of the law.

A private foundation that provides advocacy for dissatisfied consumers can also encourage various industries to perform more efficiently and professionally and therefore be more competitive.

Unfortunately, the Consumers' Foundation, under chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), is resorting to populism and, frankly, absurd reasoning to push forward an agenda that has nothing to do with the quality of products or the responsibilities of industry.

The foundation's new mission is to demand the government end its floating policy for fuel prices.

Cheng told a press conference yesterday that through this policy the government was raising prices "all the time" and making the cost of living "soar." Both claims are silly exaggerations.

Perhaps of more interest was Cheng's comment that wages are not keeping up with prices, which is indeed a subject that warrants discussion.

However, it is clear that given the choice of lobbying the Executive Yuan over a single policy with a limited application and lobbying industry over the snail-like growth in wages compared with increases in the cost of living, the Consumers' Foundation would much prefer the former.

This is because the government is more sensitive to media coverage than your average corporation, who would tell the foundation that the wages it pays are none of its business.

The absurd side of the foundation's argument on the floating fuel price is that it effectively demands that the government provide a floating subsidy across the board on the consumption of fuel, and this in a country where fuel is underpriced compared with many nations of similar wealth.

It is compelling enough that we are in an age of environmental difficulty and that energy consumption is increasingly problematic and expensive. But for the Consumers' Foundation to embark on a transparently populist campaign such as this suggests that its agenda runs deeper than advocacy for consumers, and that it is prepared to barrack for one side of the environmental debate in advancing this agenda.

During the press conference, Government Information Office Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) stated -- apparently in all seriousness -- that the government values the Consumers' Foundation as it "represents the public."

It appears that both gentlemen could do with a primer in government. It is the Fair Trade Commission that represents the public, even if it does not always look out for every individual little guy. But then again, neither does the Consumers' Foundation.
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