Former department of health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) has received backlash for saying that domestic violence exists “because the public is unable to beat up President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), so they take it out on people weaker than they are, by beating up their wives and children.”
Yaung, a former National Taiwan University (NTU) public health professor, made the remarks at a campaign event for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) in Hsinchu City on Sunday.
It was incredible and distressing that my former mentor and supervisor would make such an appalling statement. Upset as I was, I harbor no desire to beat up Yaung, or any family members for that matter.
However, has Yaung developed “dotard syndrome” because of Tsai and Chen’s leadership?
Yaung was the chair professor of NTU’s public health department when I was a graduate student. He was kind and humorous, a much different person from the one now making headlines.
Even in 2009, when he was appointed by then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as health minister, his conduct and remarks exuded professionalism. Even though anti-doctor sentiment sometimes popped up in his words, radical or abusive language never fell from his lips.
Yaung’s language took a turn after Tsai assumed office and his former NTU public health colleague Chen became vice president. His scandalous remarks hit a new peak just as Tsai’s and Chen’s support ratings were at their highest, a coincidence that I cannot help but associate with time and causality.
Akin to drug abuse, he started serving up remarks with an increased dose of nastiness over the years.
As Yaung’s symptoms became more severe over time, it seemed most fitting to name his condition “the senile dotard syndrome.”
My scientific principle for “senile dotard syndrome” is nothing like the causal inference approach taught by Chen or Yaung back at university, as I was modeling it on Yaung’s domestic violence remark. If my “senile dotard syndrome” diagnosis is ridiculous, it is no more so than Yaung’s ludicrous remarks.
Even though Yaung does not have personal security guards, I would not raise my lancet against him, nor would I sink so low as to become an abuser.
Ashamed for my alma mater, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the entire nation, I could only lament the good old days, cut all ties with him and in the manner of Prince Hal, the Shakespearean Henry V before he ascended the throne, say that “I know thee not, old man,” for Yaung has turned away from his former self.
It also shames me to say that I was an NTU public health graduate and a retiree from the ministry of health.
A decade ago, Yaung could still pass as an old rascal or funny old geezer. In retrospect, Yaung was showing early signs of “senile dotard syndrome.”
If he could vent his anger with an incendiary remark or two without resorting to domestic violence, he would be doing no one harm, but only suffer a blow to his esteem as an academic or minister.
Perhaps he could put his talent to better use by “infecting” those non-Democratic Progressive Party supporters and domestic abusers with his “senile dotard syndrome” so that cases of domestic violence can really drop.
Shih Wen-yi is a former deputy director-general of the Centers for Disease Control.
Translated by Rita Wang
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