The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should host an alternative national affairs conference on pension reform to draft its own proposal, KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday, adding that the party should present a positive alternative to benefit cuts proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, which he described as making “everyone a loser.”
“Retired military personnel, civil servants, teachers, other workers, businesses and the government all lose out under the draft pension reform plan of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration,” said Hau, a former Taipei mayor and a candidate for KMT chairperson.
Hau said on Facebook that it is imperative for the KMT to renew its connections with all sectors of society and present concrete strategies to address voters’ concerns.
Pension reform has emerged as a key battleground following the completion of a government-sponsored national policy conference last month, with Tsai’s administration proposing the gradual introduction of a broad set of benefit cuts to address the impending bankruptcy of national pension funds.
The government is to roll out a draft bill for legislative review next month at the earliest.
“Pension reform should take on all generations and sectors, rather than harming or humiliating particular groups,” Hau said, adding that the DPP was unfairly targeting the older generation with its proposal.
“The DPP keeps manipulating the issue and claims that if members of the older generation continue to receive too much pension, there will be nothing left for the next generation,” he said.
“The reality is that all of society’s resources were created and accumulated by the older generation,” he said. “Now that they are old and have made their contribution, we are being told that we have to start calculating how much we are willing to pay for their care.”
He said that the KMT should call an alternative national policy conference to allow the voices of the nation’s “silent majority” to speak and draft an alternative reform proposal.
“The Tsai administration’s proposal will be sent to the Legislative Yuan next month, meaning that not a minute should be lost in creating an alternative proposal,” he said. “We have our own think tank, many outstanding former officials, highly skilled experts and academics, our own legislative caucus, and grass-roots local government council members. As long as we take action, we can absolutely turn out an alternative proposal.”
As the five KMT chairperson candidates have a wealth of experience that can help them represent the interests of the military, civil servants, teachers, business owners and labor workers, they should attend a party-sponsored reform conference, he said.
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