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Social issues overlooked, groups say

"The representatives at the conference only focused on certain classes instead of the needs of the entire population of Taiwan."

Ku Chung-hua, president of the Taipei Society

Though the recently concluded Economic Development Advisory Conference has come up with several proposals to boost the flagging economy, the group of business and political leaders failed to address other important issues facing the nation.

That's the conclusion of more than 300 non-profit organizations. In a signed declaration yesterday, the groups said the conference had addressed the needs of big business but overlooked the problems that face the average person in Taiwan.

"The representatives at the conference only focused on certain classes instead of the needs of the entire population of Taiwan," said Ku Chung-hua (顧忠華), president of the Taipei Society.

Ku said the proposals put forth at the conference were short-term measures aimed at getting the economy back on track, but lacked long-term vision.

In the long-run, Ku said, the conference's recommendations are "not the antidotes we should take if we really want to make Taiwan a better place."

Labor, environmental, social, education and cross-Strait affairs groups held a press conference yesterday to highlight the conference's shortcomings.

Yesterday's media event was called the "99 Declaration from the Taiwanese People."

The number "99" represents yesterday's date, Sept. 9, which sounds similar to "a long time" (久) in Chinese. The date was chosen to convey the idea that proposals for Taiwan's future should have long-term vision.

Lin Jing-fu (林經甫), chairman of the ROC Community Empowering Society, said that the focus of the economic conference was aimed at addressing the needs of big business -- not ordinary people.

"A lot of important problems were clearly not mentioned during the conference," Lin said. "What we foresee happening is that many enterprises will earn a great deal of money in maybe three years or so. ... But this just takes advantage of Taiwanese workers instead of creating a better working and living environment, which is what most Taiwanese really need."

Lin in particular took issue with a proposal to relax the "no haste, be patient" policy on investment in China.

"Think about this," Lin said. "If Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and United Microelectronics Corp only hire workers from the mainland, then Tai-wanese workers will have no future at all."

Cheng Hsian-yu (鄭先祐), a representative for the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, said that what the nation really needs is a "Green Revolution" in order to protect Taiwan's natural resources.

"The conference didn't have any measures related to this idea since everyone was so concerned about money," Cheng said.

"But this is also something we definitely have to do sooner or later."

Cheng added that Taiwan's environmental situation was precarious, and that the island's resources were being squandered.

"Taiwan is not like other southeast Asian countries with a lot of natural resources to develop. Once we lose our environment, we'll lose our money, too."

Others said that while the government is liberalizing its policy on China investment, it should also be warning investors about the hidden dangers of venturing into the Chinese market.

"Our government also has the responsibility to let citizens understand the risks they might face while investing their money in China," said Chang Ching-hsi (張清溪), a professor from the economics department at National Taiwan University.

"We must also understand that the term `economy' doesn't just refer to how much money we can earn in a year," Chang said. "The word `economy' should refer to the quality of life."

Chi Hui-rong (紀惠蓉), head of the Garden of Hope Foundation, said that workers should be the main focus of any economic policy.

Instead, the government panders to labor constituents such as military personnel and public workers -- rather than coming up with policies that address the needs of workers from across all industrial sectors.

"We will keep campaigning, especially as we get closer to the year-end elections," Chi said. "I hope our voices will get louder and louder to let the politicians know we care."
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