It is reassuring to see that the government wants to bridge the gap between the Cabinet and the public.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last week said he wanted all Cabinet members to make regular trips around the country to get a feel for public opinion and to expand communication between the government and members of the public.
“Be genuine, engage in two-way conversation, keep a low profile and make a long-term commitment,” are the four guiding principles reportedly handed down by Ma.
Over the past two weekends, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) has taken the lead with his visits to factory owners in Taoyuan, and Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) is scheduled to follow suit — he has said he will be making regular trips to the countryside to visit Aborigines and the underprivileged, starting this month.
The initiative to better understand the lives and concerns of ordinary people is certainly commendable because it takes high-ranking government officials out of their comfortable offices in the capital to see and hear at first hand the challenges and difficulties faced by people around the nation. Particularly in light of recent controversies — such as the import of US beef containing ractopamine residue, the safety of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), protests over the storage of nuclear waste on Lanyu (蘭嶼, also known as Orchid Island) and safety concerns at Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s refinery plants in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) — there is no shortage of places they could visit.
Some time spent “down on the farm” with the nation’s livestock and poultry farmers might open the eyes of these officials to the real issues behind the ractopamine controversy, and a week’s “home stay” would let them experience first hand what residents in Lanyu or Mailiao endure daily.
It is to be hoped that these visits do not become out-of-town weekly field trips that Cabinet officials treat as mere jaunts or glorified picnics, with the usual political play-acting and photo opportunities against a wallpaper background of concerned citizens.
There have been enough pictures and stories of officials kissing babies, hugging senior citizens or trying their hand at using farming equipment. There has been too much self-promotion by government officials already, and taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for more.
The concern is legitimate: All too often, politicians appear to be more interested in staging “political performance art” and to be more concerned about how what they do and say looks and sounds to the media, as opposed to actually listening to people’s grievances and solving their problems.
Not to mention that ultimately, without genuine empathy — the one key element in effective human governance — all these planned visits by policymakers lose sight of their true purpose, however good the original intent.
Until they are better able to express genuine empathy with the plight of the people, these Cabinet officials should stay put in Taipei, instead of wasting taxpayers’ money touring the nation.
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