Mon, Jan 21, 2002 page8

• Editorial: A second chance for Yu and Chen

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  It is expected that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will today announce the appointment of Yu Shyi-kun, previously secretary-general to the presidential office, to lead the Cabinet. If so this will be quite a remarkable comeback for Yu, who quit his post as vice premier after the fiasco of the Pachang Creek (八掌溪) incident in July 2000 in which four people died in full view of assembled TV cameras largely as a result of rescue service unpreparedness and bungling. At the time of his resignation we pointed out that Yu was setting a new standard of integrity for Taiwan officials who, at least under the KMT administration, used to hold onto office as long as they could despite clear evidence of culpability. As the chairman of the Council of Disaster Prevention, established on July 19, Yu was technically in charge of the rescue services which performed so miserably, albeit he had only been in the post three days and could in no way be held actually responsible for the equipment failures that led to the tragedy. Nevertheless he did what used to be called "the honorable thing," although in Taiwan it has seemed in recent years to betoken eccentricity rather than probity.

  Yu has hardly been in the political wilderness, of course. Rather, he has been the ultimate insider in Chen's court. We can only hope that the close relationship that has developed between him and the president will lead to better coordination between the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan than we have seen with Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄). From the announcement of the cancellation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in late 2000 to last week's announcement of the addition of the word "Taiwan" to ROC passports, we have seen the relationship between Chen and Chang marred by a lack of coordination that goes beyond a clumsiness in timing to suggest a genuine confusion over their respective roles, powers and responsibilities. It is not just that the administration looked fumbling, it was fumbling -- as the mismanagement of the termination of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant made abundantly clear.

  What do want from the new premier? Quite frankly, better government. By this we mean a perceivable improvement in the government's efficiency and, especially a far more shrewd understanding of what the government -- still lacking a legislative majority, remember -- can do. Of course the majority of the pan-blue camp is very much thinner than it was. But for the government to do its job effectively it has to govern from the center, choosing policies of broad appeal which legislators from the opposition camp will quash at their peril. The doctrinaire behavior that led to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant fiasco must be a thing of the past.

  The priority for the government remains the economy. Traditional deficit spending as a means of economic stimulus has been complicated by the recently passed budget which left a hole in the government's accounts almost at the limit of what is currently legal. Whether this was a tactic by the pan-blue camp and its business-sector camp followers to force the selling of state-owned enterprises at knock-down prices we can only speculate. One of the greatest mistakes the government has already made is to commit itself to no tax increases for the rest of the Chen presidency. The fact is that if the government wants to go ahead with some of its pet projects -- pensions for the elderly for example -- taxes need to go up.

  Taiwan can choose to be a high-tax welfare state, European style, or a low tax, low public-provision society like the US. A debate needs to be started about this. Promising the sky and fudging the numbers won't do. More honesty please.

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