Hiding behind lame excuses has become an entrenched part of the culture in which Taiwanese officials operate. Once the civil service loses the trust of the public, problems or reports in the media can quickly take on a life of their own. Such public officials set a bad example for society as a whole. Their behavior not only erodes the very foundation on which Taiwan is built, but also distorts society’s moral compass. Official incompetence and malfeasance have to be stopped before they poses risk to wider social order.
As a matter of course, officials hide behind lies, refuse to admit their mistakes and cover up for one another, all the time. The biggest problem is that we tend to accept this kind of behavior as given and would have no idea how bad things were if elected officials and the press did not expose corrupt behavior and abuses.
Taiwan’s image has been badly tarnished by a string of recent scandals at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. In one, an official was caught drinking on the job in the control center with a female temp. The same official had also been accused separately of sexually harassing female colleagues.
To make the situation worse, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications received a Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) report on the issue that said its investigation had failed to uncover any such goings on. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) launched an inquiry into the scandal. At a press conference, deputy airport director Wen Yung-sung (溫永松) said he didn’t consider the terminal control center that important in terms of flight safety. Lo said it was, and would like to see what would happen in the case of a terrorist attack.
Next, Lo questioned other officials from the control center, but again they failed to provide her with any satisfactory answers. In the end, she threw up her hands in frustration at what she said was officials covering up for each other.
Lee Chien-min (李鑑敏), the official caught drinking on the job, was transferred to another department as punishment, and the CAA director resigned for “personal reasons that have nothing to do with disciplinary problems at the airport,” according to the official version.
The Taoyuan airport has met with a series of problems recently, symptomatic perhaps of the sharp drop in the quality of service and international ranking over the past few years. Amazingly, the CAA said a few days ago that it “feels good” about itself after publishing a customer satisfaction poll for 10 airports in Taiwan, which unbelievably showed an overall satisfaction level of 94 percent.
This issue is just the tip of the iceberg. For Taiwan to become more international, the chaos at the airport must of course be remedied and the authorities should apologize to the public for the incidents. The government must shoulder full responsibility. We must do everything to avoid becoming an international joke.
When tennis player Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) reached the quarter finals at the Wimbledon Championships, there was a sudden upsurge of interest in tennis. The story of his struggle interested people who were touched by his plea to popularize the sport. However, this story is also full of officials making excuses and Taiwan’s stultifying bureaucratic culture.
When Lu urged the government to provide more assistance to athletes, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) gave different responses every time the issue was broached. After former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) expressed his regret that Taipei has no international standard tennis center, Taipei City Government representatives were quick to claim that plans for a tennis center had been initated years earlier when Lu and fellow tennis players Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然), Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) and Chang Kai-chen (張凱貞) were first gaining experience in international tournaments. The city government said the tennis center was an important policy that would cost NT$3.5 billion (US$109 million) and be completed in 2014.
A management firm for athletes recently revealed that when it proposed inviting retired tennis stars Andre Agassi of the US and Marat Safin of Russia, the city government’s response was at best lukewarm. Officials now say that was a “a misunderstanding.”
When government officials perpetually search for excuses to explain away their mistakes, the public notices. Reminding them that honesty is the best policy is the only way to cure Taiwan’s entrenched bureaucratic culture of its many bad habits. The aim is to ensure that rather than spending time coming up with lame excuses, officials should focus on solving problems or, even bettter, making sure they never occur in the first place.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News.
TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU
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