Is it acceptable for a government to promote the use of handguns by the public when local laws clearly ban individuals from bearing arms? The answer is obviously “no.”
Can a government encourage the public to smoke marijuana when the law explicitly brands it an illicit drug? The answer is, of course, “no.”
By the same logic, how could it be appropriate for a government to promote meat products containing residues of the animal feed additive ractopamine, when an existing administrative order specifically prohibits its use?
Yet, however absurd it may sound, this is exactly what President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government is doing.
The Government Information Office (GIO) on Monday announced plans to distribute 250,000 leaflets and fliers in a bid to explain what ractopamine is, why the government wants to ease its ban on US beef imports containing the additive and the benefits this would bring the country.
As there is still no scientific evidence proving that ractopamine poses no risk to human health, it is brazen and callous of the Ma administration to so generously spend taxpayers’ money to promote something that could potentially pose a health risk to consumers.
Coming to the GIO’s defense, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) yesterday said the move to promote the banned substance does not violate the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) because it is within its mandate to explain the government’s proposal to “conditionally” permit imports of beef containing ractopamine residues.
Should this argument stand, who then is to dispense justice to the US beef importers who earlier this month saw their meat products — totaling 7,490kg — head to an incinerator in Taipei for containing the banned drug? Can they apply for state compensation?
How about local pig farmers? Who is to bring them justice for being forced by the Ma administration to sign affidavits pledging not to use any lean-meat feed additives, even though the government appears to have already abandoned its zero-tolerance policy by engaging in a public campaign for the acceptance of ractopamine?
And what purpose do the government’s shipment-by-shipment beef inspections that began on Tuesday serve when the government is at the same time doing all it can to promote the still illegal leanness-enhancing drug?
Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) has consistently said that the government holds no fixed position on the ractopamine issue. If that is the case, why did his Cabinet earlier this month announce it was leaning toward a conditional lifting of the ban on the basis of allowing a “safe” level of ractopamine in beef, separate permits for beef and pork imports, clear labeling for imported beef and maintaining the ban on offal imports?
Chen also said the Cabinet has not set a timetable for when the ban on ractopamine-laced beef imports would be relaxed. Yet, at the very same time, the public has also heard Ma instructing the relevant agencies that the issue must be solved by May 20 — the day he is inaugurated for a second term.
Through these contradictions and inconsistencies, it appears the Ma administration is suffering from a split personality. However, suffering more will be the people who have to endure for another four years a government that is demonstrating its heartlessness and disregard for the public’s health and wellbeing.
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