The blast at Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) is being treated as a national crisis. At a recent news conference, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) criticized the central and local governments for leaders’ lack of integration in crisis management and resource control. Soong said that while people on the front line work tirelessly around the clock, government ineptitude leads to inefficient disaster relief.
The problems in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration are not new: Its handling of relief efforts after Typhoon Morakot was simply chaotic. By comparison, the response to the 921 Earthquake was orderly and efficient. The administration is still controlled by the same Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), so how is it that efficiency has changed so much?
Previous KMT-led administrations transitioned from dictatorship to democracy and officials who excelled were promoted. Therefore, relations between managers and their subordinates were very good and administrative systems formed a network structure. The distinguishing feature of this network was that managers at each level were responsible for one aspect of operations and bureaucrats exerted high levels of efficiency. After the 921 Earthquake, the government bureaucracy and the military took the initiative without waiting for orders from political appointees. When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took over, the bureaucratic network was shaken up, but because DPP political appointees kept a close eye on civil servants, they were still able to maintain efficiency.
Since Ma took office, the so-called democratic politics have essentially been controlled by Ma and those close to him. Anyone not a member of Ma’s faction has been excluded, which has resulted in the bureaucracy waiting for orders instead of acting more proactively. As the job of political appointees is to integrate the duties of the permanent bureaucracy, common sense is more important than knowledge. However, political appointees under Ma, while full of knowledge, fall short when it comes to common sense.
Economically speaking, the Ma administration has made Taiwan’s economy ever more dependent on China, creating a situation where, if China’s economy shows signs of a cold, Taiwan’s economy comes down with a fever.
The KMT is on the brink of breaking up, and provided that no unexpected turn of events takes place, Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) victory in next year’s presidential election should be assured. However, after becoming president, Tsai will be confronted with major challenges: Saving Taiwan’s economy and normalizing the operating procedures of the bureaucracy are not an easy task.
Another critical situation that Tsai will have on her hands is that the green camp does not command a majority in the legislature. One problem is that there is an unfair legislative election system in which the value of each vote is unequal, while another problem is the large number of pan-green political parties, meaning that some parties may obtain tens of thousands of votes, but still not gain a single seat in the legislature.
Based on these reasons, even if the pan-green camp were to win a majority of the nation’s votes over the pan-blue camp, there is still a chance that they would have less than 50 percent of legislative seats.
In a situation where the opposition holds a legislative majority, the pan-blue camp would be able to paralyze the government, making the president a lame duck immediately upon taking office.
Chen Mao-hsiung is an adjunct professor at National Sun Yat-sen University and chairman of the Society for the Promotion of Taiwanese Security.
Translated by Zane Kheir
The Chinese government on March 29 sent shock waves through the Tibetan Buddhist community by announcing the untimely death of one of its most revered spiritual figures, Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche. His sudden passing in Vietnam raised widespread suspicion and concern among his followers, who demanded an investigation. International human rights organization Human Rights Watch joined their call and urged a thorough investigation into his death, highlighting the potential involvement of the Chinese government. At just 56 years old, Rinpoche was influential not only as a spiritual leader, but also for his steadfast efforts to preserve and promote Tibetan identity and cultural
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
RSS