When the Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) was appointed, it was said his new Cabinet would provide peace and security for the nation. With the crises over US beef imports and the outbreak of H5N2 avian influenza there seems to be a noticeable breakdown in communication between the government and the public. No one appears sure about what is going on and consumers have lost confidence in the safety of beef and chicken products.
There have been meetings on how to proceed at all governmental levels, from the Presidential Office, to the Council of Agriculture, the Department of Health and local governments. However, the public has been left completely in the dark, so these administrative powwows do little to alleviate the confusion. The problems drag on, unresolved, and the public has started losing faith in the government’s ability to cope.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt last month that the “new Cabinet will have a new approach.” No guesses as to what the administration’s stance is on the matter, then.
The opposition and experts have been arguing the point back and forth, but how many countries in the world ban imported ractopamine-injected meat? The government has not been forthcoming about how ractopamine affects cattle and pigs, or what kind of effect it has on people who consume such meat over an extended period of time. The government has called many meetings at the Presidential Office, merely repeating the mantra that its first consideration is the public’s health and that there is no predetermined stance or timetable in place.
This prevarication; this inaction; this opacity, is trying the patience of the public, experts, the opposition and the US. Some pan-blue legislators have even proposed taking the decision over US beef imports out of the hands of the Cabinet and making it a legal issue, further restricting the administration’s control over the decision.
A suspected outbreak of H5N2 avian influenza in chickens was first brought to the attention of the council in December last year by documentary filmmaker Kevin H. J. Lee (李惠仁), but it took the council more than two months to act, with a preemptive cull of tens of thousands of chickens only done recently. There have been accusations of a government cover-up, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director Hsu Tien-lai (許天來) resigned and prosecutors have raided the bureau’s offices.
The clinical results regarding the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Taiwan are inconclusive, as infected chickens are still alive and producing eggs. The council therefore decided to call successive meetings with experts to discuss the issue, although the public once again had no idea what was concluded.
Valuable time is being wasted. Academics say that to prevent the mutation of the virus and to stop it from being transmitted to humans, we should be undertaking comprehensive testing of farms for virus antibodies. The council only calls more meetings.
The crux of the problem is something that everyone was aware of even before the Jan. 14 presidential election: The Ma administration is incompetent with regard to decisionmaking, communication and governance. It is uncomfortable taking responsibility. It does not matter how many meetings with experts are held, it is not going to help dispel the public’s suspicions or fears, or prevent the collapse of their faith in the government. The premier says the Cabinet understands the importance of food safety, but when it is being coy with information and thinks more meetings are the answer to everything, when it studiously fails to address problems, the public’s ordeal drags on and its dissatisfaction with the administration grows.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under