President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been roundly condemned for his and the government’s lackadaisical attitude to the human suffering caused by Typhoon Morakot.
The lack of empathy shown to victims by Ma and senior Cabinet members in the days after Morakot struck has left a bad taste in the mouth of many that is not likely to fade. This could impact on the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) performance in December’s local elections, not to mention Ma’s chances of re-election in 2012.
Despite the public outrage, stepping down to take responsibility was never a realistic possibility. However, how Ma and a reshuffled administration deal with the challenges of reconstruction and resettlement will have a large say on his party’s prospects in the next presidential election.
The president has hoped to divert public anger, for example, by attributing the delay in rescue efforts following the storm to bad weather.
This has taken the spotlight away from the lack of pre-storm preparedness and the failure to evacuate people from areas that were at high risk of flooding, as has been done in the past.
What senior officials did — or rather failed to do — ahead of and during the storm has only begun to come to light.
Unfortunately, Ma, ever the opportunist, has taken advantage of the public’s lowered guard to further his cross-strait agenda, exploiting demands for improvements to government rescue efforts to make subtle yet significant changes to the military’s objectives. These changes will in all probability weaken an already demoralized fighting force.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Ma said that disaster prevention and rescue would become the main task of the armed forces and that nature — not China, with its 1,500 ballistic missiles and growing arsenal of high-tech weaponry — was now Taiwan’s biggest enemy.
Ma promised to buy 15 fewer Black Hawk helicopters from the US than previously planned and use the savings on new rescue equipment.
A disturbing consequence of Morakot, therefore, has been a further reduction in military strength and an even softer attitude toward the only country that threatens Taiwan. China’s belligerence has not waned, nor has it retracted its threat to use force against Taiwan.
Another issue that has escaped the attention of many in this time of crisis is the government’s failure to put together a UN bid this year.
In this respect, Morakot couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment for Ma and his discredited Cabinet.
If there is one thing that almost everyone can agree on in Taiwan, it is that Taiwan belongs in the UN. Yet, once again, Ma and his government have failed the public. As was seen with the initial refusal of post-Morakot foreign aid, the government’s primary consideration is cross-strait relations and what Beijing will think of its actions.
If Ma wants to win a second term, he needs to stop focusing on China and start focusing on Taiwan. His preoccupation with the “mainland” is hurting the very people who made him what he is.
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