Over the years, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has earned the nickname “Mr Teflon” for his uncanny ability to shake off scandals and dodge political flak.
On Monday, Ma — who was Taipei mayor during the SARS outbreak in 2003 — through his office issued a statement claiming that a controversial lockdown of Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch was “an order from the central government, implemented at a local level.”
However, a Public Television Service (PTS) documentary, Heping Storm (和平風暴), paints a different picture, allowing viewers to separate fact from fiction.
Chen Wei-cang (陳維滄), the chairman of a foundation that I work for, sponsored PTS to make the documentary. Chen had no political axe to grind; he was motivated purely in terms of public service. This allowed the documentary to examine the events surrounding the lockdown objectively and from multiple angles — and it included an interview with Ma.
In the film, Ma says that he received a report on the situation at the hospital during a breakfast meeting on the morning of April 24, 2003.
He says that he made a joint decision with then-Taipei Department of Health commissioner Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) and Wu Kang-wen (吳康文), who was the hospital’s president at the time, to “seal the hospital and prevent anyone from going in or out.”
Ma says that at 9am, he received a telephone call from then-Executive Yuan secretary-general Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳), who told him that then-vice premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) wanted to convene a meeting on the matter.
Ma says he sent then-Taipei deputy mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) and Chiou to the meeting and adds: “Our decision [to seal off the hospital] was raised at the meeting.”
By “our decision,” Ma clearly included himself in the decisionmaking process.
From this excerpt of the interview, it is clear that Ma’s claim that he received an order from the central government that he was merely carrying out differs from his testimony in the documentary.
Ma is employing pure sophistry in a naked attempt to bamboozle the public.
Perhaps sealing off the hospital was excusable under the circumstances, but a complete lack of supporting measures, Ma’s refusal to follow the instructions of the central government and his shirking of responsibility are the real reasons for the disaster that unfolded.
Another section in the documentary contains an interview with a psychiatrist at the Heping branch, Yang Chih-hsien (楊志賢).
Yang recollects that after the hospital was sealed off, Ma’s lackey, Chiou, attended a meeting with medical professionals and was told that the hospital was running short of supplies and equipment.
According to Yang, Chiou threw her hands in the air and replied: “I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do, my hands are tied.”
Yang says that some of those present thumped the table in protest, after which Chiou haughtily rebuked Wu for not maintaining control of his staff.
If Yang’s recollection of the events is correct, it is a damning indictment of bureaucratic inertia. When medical professionals asked for help from their superiors to deal with an unprecedented and dangerous situation, the bureaucrats and politicians were found utterly wanting, and callously left those trapped inside the hospital to fend for themselves.
The Heping incident shines a light on the ugly side of bureaucracy.
Shie Deng-yuan is a veteran media worker and a works for the Lionvalley Cultural and Educational Foundation.
Translated by Edward Jones
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