For a long time now, many families who depend on their salaries to make a living have been feeling the pressure of rising prices.
It is getting harder and harder for people to make ends meet.
According to the latest government figures, last month’s consumer price index (CPI) was up 1.64 percent from the same month last year. The price of take-out food, an essential item for many people, rose by 3.96 percent — a 65-month high. Among 17 key everyday commodities, the prices of eggs, pork and chicken saw the steepest rises.
As the noonday sun pushes temperatures higher and higher, popular resentment is also on the boil, yet the government has done little or nothing to stabilize prices. It is as if the authorities are testing the public to see how much people can bear.
Governmental departments always find some justification for these figures and they have little regard for other people’s perceptions. As long as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) says nothing about it, civil servants are happy to sit tight and carry on as before.
It is quite unreasonable that an administration with record-low public approval ratings and no empathy should be allowed to keep on going as if nothing were wrong. If something is going to change, regular citizens are the only ones who can make that happen.
Pork is an everyday food item for Taiwanese and it keeps getting more expensive. An outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea in October last year killed more than 10,000 piglets. Did farming authorities get a quick grasp of the epidemic situation and respond with effective measures to stabilize pork supplies? The answer can be seen from the fact that pork prices have not returned to normal this year, while the Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat and Zhongyuan festivals — peak times for pork consumption — have all passed.
There is much room for improvement in the timing and effective implementation of various policy tools, yet legislators — who are supposed to represent public opinion — seem indifferent to the problem and keep disappointing the public by making excuses for bureaucrats’ failure to act. Over the past few years, the price of pork has kept fluctuating wildly. Farmers, consumers and processors alike keep complaining that it is unbearable, so who, if anyone, stands to profit?
One thing that is clear is that the Ma administration would be nowhere near capable of coping with the consequences of permitting imports of US pork containing traces of leanness-enhancing agents.
The advance warning systems that government departments have in place at present for important farm and livestock products really only have the function of providing advance warning, without any active measures in response.
This kind of system has not only failed to stabilize the price of pork, but actually encourages suppliers — who are expecting price rises — to hoard their products instead of selling them. This makes it even harder to keep the domestic production and sale of pork under control.
In view of this, in order to achieve stability in the supply of agricultural and livestock products in the nation — apart from setting up dynamic databases on actual livestock raising and marketing — it is necessary to thoroughly review the existing advance warning systems for such products and carry out reforms so that they can perform their intended functions.
The experience of Japan, which is the world’s ninth biggest producer of pork, is worthy of note. In order to stabilize the industry’s development and consumer demand, Japanese government authorities first employed the Japanese Act Concerning the Stabilization of the Price of Livestock Products to form a legal basis for promoting a system to stabilize important livestock product prices.
This law gives the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries the authority to set stable base prices and stable upper price limits for important livestock products and find ways to keep prices at acceptable levels.
If the market price of pork exceeds the upper limit, Japan’s government takes action to increase the supply of pork. If, on the other hand, the price falls below the base, the government can employ price support measures. These tools stabilize pork prices and protect producers’ interests. This system has proved quite effective in maintaining stability, so it is worthy of consideration and implementation by Taiwan’s government.
“Small issues for the public are big issues for the government” is a slogan that is often heard at election rallies, but once elections are over, the government’s big issue always turns out to be increasing corporate profits instead. The result is to put huge amounts of wealth into the hands of a minority. For example, if ordinary people ask for the minimum wage to be raised, the quest is fraught with difficulties and cannot be achieved unless employers acquiesce.
The rich and poor are only equals at election time. Even if ordinary people only get to be the boss for a single day, we must still cherish our votes and not tearfully vote for unworthy parties and candidates.
If we are ever going to change things, our own actions are going to have to be the starting point.
Du Yu is chief executive officer of the Chen-Li Task Force for Agricultural Reform.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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