According to a poll by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) disapproval rating stands at 42.6 percent, higher than her 41.4 percent approval rating. The High-Level Policy Coordination Meetings Tsai holds every Monday to make and implement major decisions have not helped alleviate the crisis. So what is the problem?
The government seems unable to make decisions, or implement the ones it does make. This problem must be resolved. There are demonstrations on the streets, with people taking strong positions on issues, but the government remains indecisive and unable to resolve disputes. If the government implements a lot of controversial reforms, the opposition will be galvanized into a formidable force.
The Tsai administration is trying to address several controversial issues and as reforms get under way, there will be more opponents than supporters.
Pension reform is opposed by retired military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers, while both employers and employees are unhappy with a workweek proposal, with 41.2 percent of respondents supporting the reform and 47.5 percent opposing it. The proposal to remove seven national holidays is vehemently opposed by workers — as many as 54 percent of respondents want them left untouched — while 36 percent support removing them.
A push for same-sex marriage legislation is causing severe social division involving religious beliefs and gay rights, while the issue of food imports from the Japanese areas affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster is causing concern among people worried about food safety, with a mere 19.2 percent of respondents supporting an end to the import ban, while 76.3 percent said they want the ban to remain and 52 percent “strongly oppose” lifting it.
There is polarized public opinion in each of these issues, making handling them a difficult matter. Even if they can be resolved, doing so would cause great internal harm to the government. It raises the question: Has the government overestimated its abilities, or underestimated the seriousness of the problems?
Handling the ill-gotten party assets issue and seizing the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) assets is of course creating strong resentment within the main opposition party. In fact, even the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) pro-independence faction is unhappy, because the government’s cross-strait policy is proving unable to maintain the so-called “status quo” — with the nation under constant pressure from China — and because Tsai appointed pan-blue individuals, despite the DPP having control of the government.
Meanwhile, the administration is unable to rectify the nation’s title in international circles.
Even former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who is something of a mentor to Tsai, is complaining.
Reform must be orderly and follow a clear strategy. If it does not, problems will proliferate and divisions abound, with the result that everyone will be unhappy with the government.
The government must divide the various issues into categories and deal with the most important and time-sensitive ones in an orderly manner.
The holiday issue must be handled promptly, lest public grievances continue to intensify.
A vast majority is opposed to the import of Japanese food products from affected areas, so the government would be wise to leave the issue be.
The issue of homosexual marriage is a source of severe social division and the government must find a way to let tempers cool to allow sensible debate.
Dealing with all this division and conflict will be difficult unless the legislature is able to make decisions without fear of conflict and having to pay a price.
The most fundamental solution to all the confusion and disorder would be to amend the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and introduce greater direct democracy.
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