Mon, Apr 24, 2006 page8

• Chen needs a look in the mirror

  • By Chiu Hei-yuan 瞿海源
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  Under continuous attack by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said the summit between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the KMT shows that the KMT is "harboring malicious intentions" to sidestep Taiwan's elected government. A few weeks ago, Chen's approval ratings plunged to an unprecedented low of 18 percent. According to one poll, he had to rely on KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) goodwill gesture when he decided to meet with Chen to give that number a boost.

  The main reason the Chen administration has been reduced to this is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has achieved nothing, despite commanding the state apparatus and its massive administrative resources. Ever since the DPP came to power, there has been talk of DPP politicians taking money without doing anything. In the KMT era, KMT politicians also took money but they were actually able to fix problems.

  Upon first hearing these rumors, I did not really believe my ears. I wondered how those attempting to grease the palms of government officials could tolerate getting nothing in return. The scandal that will likely lead to the indictment of former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), however, has confirmed that there really are some who are stupid enough to take money without delivering. Nonetheless, only a small number of government officials behave this way. One example of this is convicted embezzler Liang Po-hsun (梁柏薰), who did not get off the hook after, as he claimed, having given Chen Che-nan a huge sum of money to help him avoid punishment.

  But there are many DPP politicians who take money and do nothing, or fail to do their jobs properly. These are not corrupt officials but they receive high salaries and generous retirement allowances, legally. Although it can't be called corruption, it is more frightening, because they are the ones who have paralyzed the execution of government policy. They are not people with nothing to do, rather they are so busy that they get nothing done properly.

  Taking money and doing nothing, or doing nothing right, reflects an inability to rule, problems with decisionmaking and administrative efficiency and an inability to deal with the unification/independence issue. In short, the DPP is incapable of governing despite having had six years to learn. The major offender, of course, is Chen Shui-bian. Despite the power and resources at his disposal, and regardless of which officials he chooses, his decisions have been inconsistent and unwise. One example is the constant attempt to coordinate the relationship between the Presidential Office, the Cabinet and the DPP. Now, they have almost come full circle, returning to an arrangement similar to that when the DPP took power.

  The gravest problem with the Chen administration is that it fails to take a good hard look in the mirror. In particular, the president behaves almost as the KMT did during the Martial Law era, suppressing every call for reform. Prior to last year's local government elections, young DPP politicians openly asked the party's leadership for reforms, but were suppressed.

  What's worse, Chen Shui-bian has instead highlighted his contributions to the party and railed against those who have withdrawn from the DPP. Ever since he became president, Chen has paid lip service to self-reflection, yet has done nothing of the kind -- not even the formal kind of review that the KMT used to engage in. Maybe the key is that President Chen's personnel choices and decision making do not allow for true reviews. There is no way he will acknowledge a need for reform. A government incapable of self reflection, given a few years to rule, will become more and more impotent.

  Most people, including DPP politicians, no longer seem to pin their hopes on the president. The problem of people taking money without doing anything will likely not be solved during the two remaining years of Chen's tenure, and the government will continue to do nothing until it loses its hold on power.

  Chen Shui-bian and the DPP government have been given power by voters, and they should make an effort to do something for the country and the Taiwanese people. I still hope that Chen Shui-bian and the government will demonstrate determination, take a good long look at themselves and make a valuable contribution to Taiwan.

  Chiu Hei-yuan is the research fellow of the Institute of Sociology at the Academia Sinica.

  Translated by Daniel Cheng
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