Taiwan's economy has been slowing down, and for this the government blames the sluggish global economy. But as evident in the dispute over the impact of vibrations caused by the north-south high-speed railway passing through the Tainan Science-based
Industrial Park, poor policymaking and administrative inefficiency are the real killers. They are the real culprits that are turning the high-speed rail into snail-train, and turning semi-conductors into insulators.
On Tuesday, Steve Hsieh (
All the parties in the dispute stand to lose. Neither the former KMT government nor the current administration can evade responsibility. The high-speed railway route was mapped out in 1992, but the Tainan park site wasn't designated until 1995. During the designation process, both the THSRC and the Kao-hsiung County Government warned of vibration problems if the railway were to pass near the site. But the NSC completely ignored the issue. When THSRC signed the high-speed rail construction contract with the government, the company listed the vibration problem as a major risk and asked the government to solve it as soon as possible. Three years have passed and a DPP administration has replaced the KMT government. But the problem remains and the dispute is intensifying.
The squabble has revealed three major flaws in the way Taiwan's government solves problems.
First, given that the vibration problem was first identified in 1995 and that neither the KMT nor the DPP government have been able to find a solution is an indication of poor administrative efficiency and an inadequate ability to solve problems.
Second, when Kaohsiung County and Tainan County were fighting to win the industrial park project, the KMT government chose Tainan for political reasons (ie, election considerations), totally ignoring expert evaluations and warnings. This example of erroneous policymaking sowed the seeds of the long-running dispute.
Third, instead of making a difficult choice between the two projects -- given that a park in Tainan and the railway are mutually incompatible -- the KMT government instead chose almost superstitiously to believe that technology would triumph by providing a solution that would make everybody happy. Even Houdini couldn't pull that rabbit out of his hat.
As a result, the problem has been ignored until the electronics firms planning to locate in the park couldn't stand it any longer and decided to pull out. By trying to please everyone, the central government has only ended up offending everyone. If either the KMT or the DPP governments had prioritized their policies and made a quick decision, the problem would not be the quagmire it is today. Yes, this is another mess the government has inherited from the KMT, not one of its own making. But given that the problem has been blindingly evident since the beginning, the current administration should have put the issue on the front burner.
Taiwan, which once won global recognition for its economic success, is now suffering from capital outflows, rising unemployment and falling exports and imports. The government keeps saying -- with a straight face -- that international factors are to be blamed for our economic woes. But perhaps the handling of the vibrations issue can better explain why so many companies are casting their votes with their feet and choosing to leave.
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