KMT railroading THSRC
The fiasco over the proposal to revive Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) shows that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ policymaking process is murky and the purpose of government intervention does not have the best interests of the public in mind.
This is one more instance that makes President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration unpopular and untrustworthy. The suspicion is that there is collusion between politicians and big business.
The government’s action lacks moral persuasion. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was unfriendly toward Continental Engineering Corp (CEC) chairwoman Nita Ing (殷琪), a former THSRC chairperson, from the outset. KMT legislators were unsupportive of her plan to finish the project when Nita was working closely with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration and constantly questioned the safety of the operation. Then her proposal to restructure the financial plan was rejected based on the argument that it would not profit shareholders.
The problem is, the fruit of success and the burden of hardship were not shared fairly. The CEC, one of the THSRC’s five original investors, and the original shareholders deserve better for carrying out the great challenge to build the rail system and taking the high risk to finance the project. Any latecomers would give people the impression that the KMT administration was robbing Peter to pay Paul.
There has been no attention paid to the history of Tang Eng Iron Works Co, which was taken over by the KMT in 1962. Tang Eng was very successful at the time, teaming up with Mitsubishi and expanding quickly to help supply the Vietnam War effort.
A Wikipedia report is erroneous in this regard, saying that Tang Eng suffered financially because of Vietnam War. The truth of the matter is that the KMT did not allow Tang Eng to extend credit when a small loan was due and took over the entire company by forcing Tan Eng into bankruptcy. The company’s president, unable to cope with the political tyranny, suffered a stroke and died at a young age.
If Tang Eng could have remained private, Taiwan would have been able to compete well with modern South Korean heavy industry, given that it was Mitsubishi’s equal after the World War II.
Sadly, the KMT does not pay attention to history and is attempting to squeeze out of THSR the people who can build a better Taiwan.
With the US government’s dealings with Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, it can be understood why the US is a world leader in technology and innovation. When it sees strong business leaders, it supports them and helps them to help society, creating a win-win situation.
The zero-sum mentality on the part of KMT is why Taiwan’s economy is stagnant and incomes are declining. There are many other sound projects the ministry could undertake. Electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles will take over the automobile industry in the near future. The innovation of Gogoro to build electric scooters and charging stations appears to fit well with this trend. This will help with air pollution, which has long been considered a major contributing factor to cancer, as well as paving a path to the world market.
The ministry needs to set its priorities right to help build Taiwan’s transportation infrastructure for the 21st century while avoiding political smear campaigns.
James Hsu
Santa Carina, California
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