Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the nation faced a difficult situation and that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration was incapable of leading it through.
“Taiwan needs a leader with a cool head to lead us through the difficult situation we face right now. However, the government sets new fires every day and then has to spend time dealing with the political crises it creates itself,” Tsai said in a speech delivered to members of the Ketagalan Academy Alumni Association.
The Ketagalan Academy, established in 2003, is the brainchild of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and aims to nurture officials for roles in a future DPP administration.
Tsai said that as a result of the European debt crisis and other situations, the global economy was deeply unstable and people were increasingly concerned about such issues as economic recession, unemployment and the growing wealth gap.
Taiwan faces a similar crisis she said, adding “We need to ask the government how it plans to counter these problems and where is it leading the nation?”
Taiwan has become less competitive since Ma took office in 2008, Tsai said
The problem lies in the government’s lack of efficiency, she said, adding the way the government is organized was inherited from the authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, which has no mechanism to facilitate coordination between ministries so as to respond to and seek to resolve problems as quickly as possible.
“Currently we see the president directing ministries and ministers. The Cabinet and ministries do not appear to have their own voice,” Tsai said.
In the face of such government inefficiency, members of the public should work to form a stronger civil society and speak out on public affairs, thereby helping the public communicate with the government on policy-related issues.
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