PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) criticized the government yesterday for letting its decsions about the allocation of national resources be dictated by political considerations.
Soong warned that such actions would, in the long run, lead to a distortion of the nation's resources allocation.
"Political ideology, political party interests and pursuit of victory in elections are what have become the basis for the DPP administration's decisions on national resource distribution," said Soong.
"To base such decisions upon these three considerations would, in the long run, led to a distortion and thus impose quite a substantial burden on the nation's long-term resource-distribution, he said."
Soong made the remarks yesterday at a round-table conference organized by his party. The stated purpose of the conference was to hold discussions concerning Taiwan's national finances, allocation of resources and unemployment issues.
"In light of the nation's current grave unemployment issues, all relevant policies addressed by the government ought to, more than ever, meet the needs of the whole nation," Soong said.
"Yet, judging from the government's proposals, such as those to increase the National Health Insurance premiums... what we see is that the DPP administration's inappropriate national resources allocation decisions are the result of it letting the three aforementioned factors dictate its decisions," he said.
Soong criticized what he called the government's lack of a clear and explicit plan in its policy proposals. Such vagueness, he said, has led to skewed policy and conflicting government measures.
Citing the government's recent proposals for a NT$70 billion public-service program as an example, Soong complained that no one yet has a clear picture of the program's content.
Soong took the recent controversy over the restrictions on plastic bags as another example of how the government lacks a clear and definite plan in its resource managment.
"Although the reason behind the Environmental and Protection Agency's policy to ban the use of plastic bags is well-motivated, the time to implement such a policy is not right," said Soong. "Given the nation's current high unemployment rate, to choose to implement the policy at this time has resulted in a great impact on the people."
Noting the national debt, Soong reminisced about some of late-president Chiang Ching-kuo's (蔣經國) achievements, while lashing out at the DPP administration for squandering the nation's resources.
"What we see now is that the government is more and more in debt," said Soong. "And that is because the DPP administration has taken on an attitude of `Do it first and worry about the debt later,'" said Soong.
Soong noted that the government had a budget surplus during Chiang's 10-year term as president, but that it had deteriorated during the 12-year presidency of Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
Soong said that it has further deteriorated under the presidency of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), during which time it has which it has doubled, Soog said.
At the conference, the party also released results of a survey it conducted. According to the poll, conducted from Jan. 8 to Jan. 9, 67 percent of the respondents said the economy and unemployment are the most serious problems facing the country. The survey also said that 53.8 percent of those interviewed have no confidence in the government's ability to solve the economic problems.
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