Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) has gained much attention in the past month, as she aggressively proposed to cut large portions of the government budget, becoming the focus of discussions across social media and drawing negative attention to herself and her party.
On Aug. 14, the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan, after nearly a full-year delay, finally passed this fiscal year’s central government general budget, with several deep cuts proposed by Weng. It included cutting the culture ministry’s entire publicity fund and a NT$10 million (US$313,991) cut from the Preisdental Office’s discretionary state affairs fund with an additional NT$20 million freeze — the entirety of the fund — sparking much public comment.
A Presidential Office official said that a part of the state affairs fund is usually used for purchasing mooncakes and gift boxes made by shelter workshops for the Mid-Autumn Festival next month, but Weng insisted on cutting and freezing the entire fund, despite Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) attempts to mediate.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) on Aug. 20 invited members of the shelter workshops to explain the situation and urged the public to purchase mooncakes made by the workshops to support them during the upcoming holiday — the peak sales season during which the government has traditionally purchased a large amount of their wares. The Presidential Office cannot do so anymore. The office released a list of 62 workshops and social welfare groups, encouraging the public to help people with disabilities by purchasing holiday gift boxes from them.
As many people have accused Weng of a lack of empathy in gutting the fund that was used to help vulnerable groups, she was seen in a video allegedly cutting in line to enter a movie theater on Aug. 15 (which she denied) and posting a picture alleged to show a movie screen on Facebook (later deleting it), sparking more discussions about her questionable behavior.
Weng added fuel to the fire by saying that she objects to using taxpayers’ money for charity, adding President William Lai’s (賴清德) was “guilt tripping” the opposition lawmakers and that he should use his own salary for charity work, drawing more criticism, as many see her actions as political retaliation and using the income of vulnerable people for political gain.
Weng has criticized the Presidential Office’s call to help shelter workshops and Lai’s NT$200,000 out-of-pocket purchase, saying “‘doing good without others knowing’ is a core value shared by Chinese people,” while she said in an interview that she is a “proud and upright Chinese” who is “living in Taiwan,” drawing immediate praise from Chinese state-owned media, but causing a public backlash in Taiwan.
While most members of the public do not pay close daily attention to bill debates or budget reviews at the legislature, and politicians can easily manipulate public perception on complicated issues by crafting simplified and emotional messages that benefit their own interests, many important public issues that need rational and substantial discussions are drowned out by constant partisan conflict “noise” and overlooked as the public grows more indifferent to politics.
However, the incidents involving Weng, her “merciless” budget cuts, and controversial actions and remarks, as well as the Presidential Office’s decision to invite shelter workshops to promote their holiday gift boxes publicly, have helped people see who are being hurt by their actions and put a “face” to the opposition legislators making those decisions.
Many people are realizing that the so-called “rational oversight” of government budget and “compromises” made by the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers are not what they claimed, highlighted by Weng’s callous attitude, backed by votes from their lawmakers. A Web site that analyzed YouTube view counts linked Weng to negative comments and keywords such as “cruel,” “shelter workshops” and “buy it yourself.”
Weng does not seem to worry about the criticism. When Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers told the public that the culture and public media budget would not have passed without the support from “59 Wengs in the legislature,” including several who are running for local government heads this year, she replied by saying she aims for “113 Wengs in the legislature.”
With the nine-in-one local elections coming in less than 100 days, Weng may prove to be a major liability for the KMT, as more voters are associating her arrogant attitude, her heavy-handed use of unchecked legislative power and her questionable national identity — as some polls have shown that 2.5 percent of the people in Taiwan identify themselves as “Chinese only” — with her party.
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