Thu, Jun 29, 2017 page8

• EDITORIAL: Pension bill a turnaround for Tsai

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  After much debate, lawmakers on Tuesday finally passed the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法).

  That was one day after the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation released its latest monthly poll, showing an approval rating of just 33.1 percent for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), her lowest since taking office.

  The foundation linked the decline to the loss of another diplomatic ally, Panama; the Council of Grand Justices’ interpretation on same-sex marriage; and other controversial reform plans, in addition to the government’s perceived lack of progress on those reforms.

  Despite objections by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to details of the reforms from the moment they were first announced by Tsai and large-scale protests by retired civil servants — who stand to lose from the proposals — politicians across party lines have for years acknowledged that pension reform is needed.

  Then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Jan. 30, 2013, described the pension system as a time bomb, saying that he would make its reform a priority.

  The problem with the present pension system is that it offers very generous terms to those who have worked in the public sector, such as military personnel, civil servants and school teachers. While such generous terms were appropriate and meaningful in the past, not only they are less so today, they threaten to bankrupt the Labor Insurance Fund and civil servants’ pension funds.

  This is especially true in the context of an aging society that is expected to put more burden on the system.

  When Ma’s government proposed reforms, the plans were immediately met with heavy opposition from the people they targeted. Teachers came out in force, threatening to withhold their votes from the KMT.

  Factions within the KMT balked, knowing that public employees and retired civil servants formed a considerable part of the party’s supporters.

  Ma’s government suspended its reform efforts, but the damage was done. While large swathes of KMT supporters felt betrayed by Ma’s proposals, reformers and those worried about the nation’s finances and their own pensions resented his backing down.

  Ma lost on both fronts and his opponents smelled blood. Ma sent his government into a vicious cycle fueled by feelings of betrayal among his supporters and a lack of confidence in his ability to see through promises.

  However, the Tsai administration’s passage of the pension reform bill could well mark a turning point in the government’s fortunes and see her approval ratings rise. It could lead to a cycle where she is seen leading from a position of strength.

  Like Ma before her, Tsai has risked the ire of a large part of the electorate, albeit not a part that has traditionally supported the Democratic Progressive Party. Unlike Ma, she has given reformists and those concerned about the Labor Insurance Fund’s imminent bankruptcy reason to take heart.

  Her administration has sent out a signal to civic society, reformists and the opposition that not only is she serious about the ambitious reform agenda she set for her presidency — targeting pensions, the judicial system, the armed forces and transitional justice — but that she is willing to weather mass protests and stay the course for what she feels is the right thing to do.

  However, Tsai’s agenda is very ambitious. There is a huge amount of work still to be done.

  She is right to tackle large problems now, at the beginning of her term, not just because of their urgency, but also because the first years of a government, when it still has the political momentum behind it, are the time to get the difficult reforms out of the way.
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