Spectacular New Year’s Eve countdown parties and firework shows have become an annual ritual. However, people have started asking whether local governments should continue lavishing tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars on one night, given the years of financial difficulty and so many people still in need.
They also wonder whether it would make more sense to introduce variety to the celebrations, so that the same activities do not occur in every city.
These concerns demonstrate Taiwanese have the generosity, good sense and creativity to identify true needs versus extravagance, in their attempts to usher in the new year in a way that is not superficial.
However, does the government engage in similar self-reflection?
It seems that compared with the public, policymakers and government officials lack creativity about the nation’s development. Not understanding what people are really concerned about poses a real national problem going forward.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in his New Year’s Day address that revitalizing the nation’s economy is the government’s top priority this year, and that he has invited former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) to organize a special task force to help push Taiwan’s entry into two economic blocs under negotiation — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Sound familiar?
This is practically the same annual resolution Ma has made over the years, and this economic task force is no different to its many predecessors.
Clearly, the government has lost its ability to design innovative policies for the nation’s future.
However, a more serious problem for policymakers is that they have decided to focus solely on the economy, while pushing aside important national policy issues, such as taxation fairness, social justice and sustainable development.
The most glaring absence in Ma’s New Year’s Day speech was acknowledgment of the public outcry over recent food safety and industrial pollution scandals, and several controversial land grab cases.
If this is how Ma handles the public response to his government’s many economic initiatives over his two terms, he will find no policy breakthrough this year either.
If the government wants to keep the economy moving forward, it must listen to and better communicate with the public.
People want to have decent jobs, better wages and a growing economy, but they do not want government policies that only benefit big business and the elite, while the rest of us are left to live with fears of heavier taxation, unsafe food and environmental degradation.
Ma said in his speech that he hoped everyone would work in unity to boost the economy.
The opportunity exists, but the question is: Who is “everyone” in the government’s eyes. Does it mean ordinary people, or business tycoons and industry heavyweights?
The success of this approach also depends on whether the government can treat the public as close partners and take action in a balanced way.
If there has been soul-searching among Taiwanese, the government should also follow suit.
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan in late February. During their various meetings with Taiwan’s leaders, this delegation never missed an opportunity to emphasize the strength of their cross-party consensus on issues relating to Taiwan and China. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Their instruction upon taking the reins of the committee was to preserve China issues as a last bastion of bipartisanship in an otherwise deeply divided Washington. They have largely upheld their pledge. But in doing so, they have performed the
It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ambition is to rejuvenate the Chinese nation by unification of Taiwan, either peacefully or by force. The peaceful option has virtually gone out of the window with the last presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese, especially the youth, are resolved not to be part of China. With time, this resolve has grown politically stronger. It leaves China with reunification by force as the default option. Everyone tells me how and when mighty China would invade and overpower tiny Taiwan. However, I have rarely been told that Taiwan could be defended to
It should have been Maestro’s night. It is hard to envision a film more Oscar-friendly than Bradley Cooper’s exploration of the life and loves of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was a prestige biopic, a longtime route to acting trophies and more (see Darkest Hour, Lincoln, and Milk). The film was a music biopic, a subgenre with an even richer history of award-winning films such as Ray, Walk the Line and Bohemian Rhapsody. What is more, it was the passion project of cowriter, producer, director and actor Bradley Cooper. That is the kind of multitasking -for-his-art overachievement that Oscar
Chinese villages are being built in the disputed zone between Bhutan and China. Last month, Chinese settlers, holding photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), moved into their new homes on land that was not Xi’s to give. These residents are part of the Chinese government’s resettlement program, relocating Tibetan families into the territory China claims. China shares land borders with 15 countries and sea borders with eight, and is involved in many disputes. Land disputes include the ones with Bhutan (Doklam plateau), India (Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin) and Nepal (near Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts). Maritime disputes in the South China