The “biggest mistake of my life” was taking up the position of Control Yuan president in 2008, Wang Chien-shien said yesterday.
The outgoing president added that the Control Yuan has failed the public’s expectations.
Wang compared his Control Yuan presidency with incarceration, saying he was happy that he “would be discharged from prison soon,” ahead of his six-year term expiring at the end of July.
Photo: CNA
Asked about his regrets, Wang said that the Control Yuan, under his leadership, has failed to meet public expectations, which he attributed to some members without identifying them.
“Some of the Control Yuan members were nice people when they were appointed to the position, but they completely changed after they started wielding power. Absolute power drives a person crazy,” Wang said.
However, he said that he was not in a position to bring Control Yuan members “who are not like me” back to the right track, because each Control Yuan member should be allowed to work independently without any interference.
Wang said he could not agree more with his predecessor, Wang Tso-jung (王作榮) — who died in July last year — when the latter said that being president of the Control Yuan is very boring, because the job merely entails the rubber-stamping of documents, spending public money and socializing over meals.
“Any bodhisattva statue from the Zhinan Temple (指南宮) placed in the top position at the Control Yuan could do a better job than Wang Chien-shien,” Wang Chien-shien paraphrased his predecessor as saying.
Wang Chien-shien gave a thumbs-up to Hon Hai Technology Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), who on Thursday called a press conference and derided the value of democracy after a recent spate of protests that followed the student-led Sunflower movement protests.
“Gou was right by saying: ‘Democracy makes no pottage,’” Wang Chien-shien said.
“Like the question: ‘Love or bread?’ points out, one can die without bread. If Taiwan cannot keep its economy growing, what kind of democracy is that?” he asked.
“Many people think that Taiwan is a beacon of democracy to the world and its democracy is a positive encouragement for people in China, but can Taiwan continue to serve as a model of democracy for other countries? I think it will only take a toll on them [other countries],” Wang Chien-shien said.
His remarks drew negative comments.
Former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) said Wang Chien-shien did not get much done during his tenure.
“He should have been able to do something, but he did nothing,” Hsu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) said he wished that Wang Chien-shien could “disappear from the public eye as soon as possible.”
DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said that Wang Chien-shien should have resigned earlier if he realized that it was a mistake to take up the position.
As Wang Chien-shien has done many times before, Tsai said, he has once again committed a faux pas.
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