Political observers said yesterday that the chain of events since the government halted construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
"The president made two diametrically opposed decisions on the controversial nuclear issue within only three and a half months," said DPP lawmaker and New Tide faction leader Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌). "So the public will question President Chen's ability to lead the country consistently and logically."
"Declaring a halt to construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and deciding to resume construction are important policy matters. The first decision led to the resignation of former premier Tang Fei (
Hong said he did not agree with Chen's reasoning that the government had to resume construction because the DPP is the minority party in the Legislature.
"The reality and political conditions, however, obviously have not changed during the past five months. The DPP is the minority party. How can the president not have considered that when he decided to halt the plant" Hung said.
To avoid making similar mistakes in the future, Hung said that Chen should establish new policy-making mechanisms, such as forming a bigger consulting team, and sharing greater power with DPP colleagues. Hung also said Chen needs more financial experts as advisors.
Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine, echoed Hung's remarks, saying that Chen "did not prepare enough weapons before declaring war and then surrendered without expressing a will to fight to the end."
Chin also said that Chen declared his decision to halt construction of the plant too hastily and instead should have first built popular support against the plant.
"Then Chen did not follow the ruling of the grand justices by adopting all possibilities in negotiations with the opposition alliance, but then choosing total surrender," Chin said. "He ignored the voices of his colleagues [DPP lawmakers and party leaders] and those anti-nuclear groups who strongly favored Chen insisting on carrying out the [anti-nuclear] ideal."
Chin pointed out that Chen might use the nuclear issue to boost the DPP's campaign during legislative elections in December, but said voters will still question whether the president will betray them again.
A high-ranking official at the Presidential Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted yesterday that the government "lost the battle completely" because of Chen's leadership.
"From the halting of to resuming construction has brought three months of political commotion and nothing has been accomplished. It shows problems in President Chen's leadership style. He wanted to do things well, but he was too rushed and unable to maneuver politically," the official said when interviewed by the Taipei Times.
The official echoed Hung's comments that the president needs to expand his team of advisors. "We can only hope that the president will learn a good lesson from this event," the official said.
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