During her address at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) annual national congress, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), concurrently party chairperson, presented a slideshow of the challenges — the flooding at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the strike by China Airlines employees, the accidental firing of a missile and the aftermath of Typhoon Nepartak in Taitung — her administration had faced so far.
Some, she said, were longstanding problems, while others had come out of the blue.
“However, the public is concerned about how the party addresses these issues,” she said.
A ruling party is constantly assailed by a dizzying array of challenges, a new one arriving hard on the heels of the last. If the party is deemed to be performing badly, the public’s faith in its abilities to govern effectively can plummet.
The waning months of the two previous administrations — of former presidents Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — were bogged down in events and low popularity ratings they were unable to recover from. Tsai has been in power for only two months and should still be in her honeymoon period. How can she avoid falling into the same ruts of the previous two administrations?
First, the causes of the China Airlines strike and the Taoyuan airport flooding had their roots in Ma’s presidency, but little good comes of blaming a problem on a previous administration.
As far as the public is concerned, anything that happens during Tsai’s term is hers to deal with. Their complaints will not quiet down if all the government is interested in is engaging in a war of words with the opposition, or exploring the whys and wherefores of the problem: People just want to see their leaders roll up their sleeves and solve the problem.
As Tsai said in her address, the important thing is to deal with the problem when it arises, or to address it before the situation worsens.
Second, the government needs to get to the crux of a problem and not get bogged down in ideological debate. The issue of unification or independence will not be solved overnight, and opening up that particular Pandora’s box will only waste time and energy.
The decision to put the debate on amending the DPP platform’s independence clause on hold for the duration of the national congress and leaving it to the party’s Central Executive Committee was a wise one. Otherwise, the congress would have been totally occupied with this single issue, and to little avail, for even if the DPP had come to a decision, it would have been endlessly debated by the public, with China no doubt poking its nose in. Far better to devote energy and resources to discussing more pressing issues, such as pension reform and judicial reform.
Finally, the government needs to get things right and not give the public any reason to be disappointed in it. Even small things, when done well, will accumulate over time to contribute to greater successes.
A rather distressing news item over the past week was 42 First Commerical Bank ATMs being hacked by an international criminal gang, which managed to steal more than NT$83 million (US$2.59 million). Over the weekend, three suspects were apprehended, reportedly found in possession of more than NT$60 million. The gang is known to have operated in many nations and there is no record of any of them being arrested before.
When the theft was first discovered, police requested information from Russia, but heard nothing back. The suspects were arrested by Taiwanese efforts alone, with the help of members of the public, including taxi drivers and three traffic police officers, and now other nations that had been targeted by the gang are requesting information from Taiwan.
This can be regarded as a great success and the government can be proud of it, as it restored a sense of security to the public.
Police, too, are to be roundly applauded for their success.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry