Comprised of political, academic and economic heavyweights, the Taiwan Think Tank (台灣智庫) will be officially launched tomorrow.
Despite the group's professed political neutrality, a source at the Presidential Office yesterday told the Taipei Times that the government hopes it will serve as a useful resource for the administration.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is to make a speech at the opening event.
"The president hopes the think tank will become a cradle to cultivate the social elite, and will serve as a significant consulting organization for the government," the source from the Presidential Office said.
Comparing the group with think tanks in the US such as the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute -- which function to formulate and promote public policy for the US government -- the presidential official said that Chen expects the Taiwan Think Tank can play a similar role.
After the news was made public last week, criticism mounted that the group was formed because the DPP does not have enough policy-making experience or enough talented people who are up to the job.
Others speculated that the group will try to implement policies on behalf of governmental officials because they cannot fulfill their duties when faced with a bureaucracy that is unwilling to cooperate.
The official refuted the notion, saying that the group was not formulated as a training ground for cultivating talent for Chen's administration.
"Instead, the president wishes the body, without any partisan prejudice, to be a place where the elite can help society as a whole. It can be a constant that the president and the Cabinet can consult with over policy."
In the think thank's declaration, it emphasizes that the body will not be "a concentration of power."
"Under a dictatorial regime, the government rules its people by suppression and so think tanks are not needed. [If there are any,] think thanks only serve as a make-up artist for the government," it states.
"But in a democratic society, the government has to first persuade people of every profession that its policies are sound. Think tanks will therefore be an essential partner for the government."
Emphasizing its resolution on reform, the statement said that "reform is not the obligation of the individual, it falls on the shoulders of an entire society, especially upon its intellectuals."
But although the official stressed the organization's non-partisan nature, the fact remains that the group is composed mainly of pro-Chen entrepreneurs and political figures.
Its members can be divided into three categories.
The first includes authoritative figures from various professional fields who are greatly respected by Chen, such as the Taiwan Stock Exchange Chairman Lin Jong-hsiung (林鐘雄), Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), and Lee Hung-hsi (李鴻禧), law professor of National Taiwan University.
The second includes reform-minded younger scholars and former activists of the student movement in the 1980s and 1990s such as Ko Chen-en (柯承恩), dean of National Taiwan University's College of Management, Fan Yuan (范雲), a research assistant at Academic Sinica, and National Security Council senior advisor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
The third class of members includes governmental officials and members of the business community, such as Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Yu Shyi-kun, Minister without Mortfolio Hsu Chih-hsing (許志雄), Nita Ing (殷琪), president of the Taiwan High-speed Railway Co, Chimei Corporation chairman Shi Wen-lung (許文龍), and I-mei Foods Industrial Co Ltd's Kao Chih-shang (高志尚).
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