A former National Security Council (NSC) official said yesterday that calling a national security meeting on combating a swine flu epidemic was not as important as ensuring that the meeting was effective in dealing with the issue.
Chang Jung-feng (張榮豐), who served as NSC deputy secretary-general under then president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), made the comments in response to recent criticism leveled against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has been panned by the Democratic Progressive Party for his decision not to hold a national security meeting to deal with the threat of an A(H1N1) epidemic.
Some critics said Ma's decision not to activate an anti-epidemic national security mechanism could be an indication that he had underestimated the potential risks of an epidemic.
Instead of holding a national security meeting, Ma on Thursday invited academics and specialists from Academia Sinica, former health ministers and public health officials to attend a consultation conference on combating the A(H1N1) virus.
Chang said there was no such thing as “activating the national security mechanism,” a term he said was coined by former NSC secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), because the council was supposed to be the eyes and ears of the president and it should be on top of any possible threat at all times.
Chang said that an effective NSC meeting should last between one hour and an hour and a half and follow the four stages of the decision-making process: analyze the problem, propose remedies, pick the best solution possible and execute the plan.
He added that what mattered is not whether a national security meeting should be called, but rather that the “objective [of the meeting] must be clear and the key is to identify the problem and find the best solution.”
“It is also important to keep abreast of the situation or it would be like a blind man riding a blind horse,” he said.
As there is not enough supply of the vaccine, Chang proposed prolonging the period leading to the peak of the epidemic and prioritizing the recipients of the vaccine.
It was equally important to place a higher-ranking Cabinet official, such as Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) or Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄), in charge of the Executive Yuan's Central Epidemic Command Center instead of Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) because the spread of the epidemic would involve border control, which falls beyond the health department's jurisdiction, Chang said.
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