Mon, Jun 21, 2004 page2

• Ma tries to burnish his credentials as a strong leader, with Lien looking weak

  IN THE WINGS Everyone knows that the mayor of Taipei is a major political star, but still he's finding it a good idea to position himself for the KMT's chairmanship

  • By Jewel Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  In order to contend for the chairmanship of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the 2008 presidential candidacy, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has intensified the not-so-new dispute over national health insurance subsides during the past week. Analysts see this is as Ma trying to display his leadership qualities -- if he is tough and fearless about taking on the central government, this will strengthen his credentials as the blue camp's leader in waiting.

  Since the Ministry of Justice announced last Monday that it intended to seize 30 properties belonging to the Taipei City Government as security for its health insurance debts, Ma has turned the issue into a major political drama, using every means at his disposal to accuse the central government of extortion in trying to recoup the NT$10.8 billion of unpaid health insurance subsides the city government has racked up since 1999.

  Ma first commissioned his deputy mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) to openly denounce the central government as "illegitimate" and "unjust" at the city government meeting on Tuesday.

  On Friday he followed this up by dispatched city officials to negotiate with the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) officials on the city's outstanding debts, while using a pan-blue rent-a-mob to demonstrate noisily outside the venue where negotiations were taking place.

  City government officials and city councilors chorused that the city government did not owe the BNHI a dime according to Article 27 of the National Health Insurance Law (全民健保法) and Constitutional Interpretation 550 made by the Council of Grand Justices, stressing the city did not have to pay the bills for 3.58 million people who are "employed" in Taipei when only 2.63 million people live in the city.

  Chang Hong-jen (張鴻仁), general manager at the BNHI rebutted the city's contention as "one-sided information" and a "distorted interpretation of the law," saying it is "a matter of course for debtors to pay back liabilities to creditors."

  After a week's wrangle over the money issue, Ma has escalated the issue by trying to enlist public opinion on his side.

  The dispute is a long running one which should be resolved by the pan-blue controlled legislature revising various tax laws.

  That Ma has sought not to get his political allies to do this but to engineer a standoff with the central government is part of his strategy to demonstrate his suitability to take the reins of the pan-blue camp

  "It is obvious that Ma's administration and the pan-blue camp's city councilors were playing supporting actors in a dram designed to highlight that Ma was suppressed by the central government headed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) City Councilor Lo Chung-shen (羅宗勝).

  By refusing to accept the central government's demands, Ma can create a hard-line image in the blue camp while many KMT and PFP supporters are looking to a strong political star to save them from the current chaotic situation, Lo said.

  "Ma was being provocative and controversial about the issue just to create a hard-line image in the KMT so that he could contend for KMT's chairmanship with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平)," Lo said. "Otherwise I can't figure out what earth Ma wanted to fight for now given that the city government has owed this money since 1999."

  Wang, who is also a KMT vice chairman, was involved in a number of political incidents in the past two weeks, also widely seen as an attempt to showcase his leadership qualities, in a putative rivalry with Ma.

  Last Sunday, Wang announced he would contend for a KMT legislator-at-large seat in the December legislative elections as his path to be reelected as the legislature's speaker.

  This is a post that embodies real power in the pan-blue camp since the legislature is the only national political forum in which the opposition parties can make a difference.

  Wang then proposed what he called a "Taiwan Interests Theory" (台灣利益論) to promote harmony among different ethnic groups and argue that that the issue of independence or reunification should be left to posterity to resolve.

  Seeing Wang, who has wide and steadfast support in the KMT grassroots membership and ordinary voters, so obviously in the running, Ma knew that i f he sought a leadership role he had to steal some limelight.

  Many lawmakers and analysts, however, have given a thumbs down to Ma's taking advantage of the issue of health insurance premiums to promote his leadership bid, saying Ma's ambitions have obscured the real nature of the problem and the ways in which it might be best solved.

  The leader of the DPP's Taipei City Council caucus, Chou Po-ya (周柏雅), said the city government had the right to express its objections toward the method for calculating the city's health insurance fees, but it could not appeal to mob pressure.

  "I think that no one thinks refusing to pay the money is going to have an effect," Chou said. "Revising the law if it is considered unreasonable is the correct way to settle the problem."

  Director-general of DPP's legislative caucus Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) also said that if Ma did not agree with the regulations of the Health Insurance Law, he should demand blue-camp lawmakers, who are still the majority in the legislature, propose its revision.

  "Ma's haggling over every ounce shows his myopia in politics," said Chen Li-hung (陳立宏), a political commentator and a senior political reporter.

  Chen pointed out that it seemed that that Ma does not want to take care of the health of people who do not actually live in Taipei since they are not his constituents.

  Ma wanted everything favorable to Taipei, but was not willing to share the responsibility for other people who do not live in Taipei, Chen said.

  "It is a typical viewpoint of a Taipei politician," he said. "And this was not the first case that Ma has judged things from Taipei instead of Taiwan."

  Ma might have seen his bold defiance as earning him political credit but outside of Taipei it just shows how little he cares about anyone except his voters, which is not the message a national political figure wants to cultivate, Chen said.
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