Analysts suspicious of Ma's plea for compensation

With the election for Taipei City mayor six months away, media-savvy Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is expected to try to grab all the headlines he can get until election day.

But some are wondering whether his latest move is being taken with the best interests of Taipei citizens in mind.

Following the Executive Yuan's recent rejection of the city's request for the central government to subsidize the dredging of the Keelung River, Ma yesterday asked the Cabinet to compensate workers at the city's car washes and spas for their loss of work resulting from the water-rationing imposed in Taipei.

His request, however, was turned down by both Premier Yu Shyi-kun and Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪), executive-general of the ad hoc Cabinet-level drought-relief center, during the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.

According to Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), Ma filed the request during the meeting, arguing that the government had compensated farmers who had been ordered to leave their fields fallow during a drought in central Taiwan in March.

Kuo, however, kicked the ball back to the city, saying that it was the responsibility of the local government to take care of any compensation before asking the central government for help.

"According to the Disaster Prevention Law, the two special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung cities are authorized to take care of natural disasters themselves, including issuing relief compensation and helping those affected to find a new job," Kuo said. "The central government will only intervene or offer further assistance when the region is declared a national disaster area or has a hard time making up the [financial] shortfall."

Kuo also explained why the central government offered compensation to farmers in March.

"According to the Water Allocation Law, at the top of the priority list of water consumption is the agriculture sector, followed by families and the industrial sector. Farmers received compensation for their losses because other sectors took away water guaranteed to them by law," Kuo said.

Just as Ma was about to take his argument further, according to Chuang, Yu ordered the two to stop arguing.

"Let's stick to procedure and discuss other issues on the agenda," Yu was quoted as saying. "Since this section of the meeting is a review of media reports, it'd be a better idea to bring up the subject later during the discussion section."

To end the argument, Yu said that the government's stance was simple.

"I hope that the city does its best to take care of the matter within its power. The government will do what it can to help and step in at an appropriate time."

Commenting on the incident, Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), a political observer and editor in chief of Contemporary magazine, said he agreed with the premier's stance that the city should take care of the matter itself and ask for help later.

"The city is, after all, the best-off local government among the nation's 23 county and city governments," he said.

He also agreed with Yu that Ma should follow the conference procedures to present the issue later.

"Ma's tactic of manipulating the issue is similar to that surrounding the dredging project of the Keelung River," Chin said.

"I'm very curious to know the motive behind the two incidents. Is he more interested in asking for financial assistance from the central government to solve the city's problems? Or is he more interested in trying to give the public the impression that the central government is giving him a hard time?"