Mon, Sep 13, 2004 page3

• Executive Yuan defends bill aimed at abolishing the MAC

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Executive Yuan raised political eyebrows last week when it approved a government restructuring bill which would abolish the Mainland Affairs Council but won accolades for dropping the idea of merging three agencies dealing with ethnic affairs into a single agency.

  The draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法) will proceed to the legislature for further review and final approval.

  The Executive Yuan was required by the Standard Organic Law of Central Government Agencies (中央政府機關組織基準法), passed in the legislature in June this year, to release draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan by the end of last month.

  The Executive Yuan hopes to see the draft passed into law by the end of the year and implement it on Jan. 1 next year.

  The Standard Organic Law of Central Government Agencies limits the number of Cabinet ministries to 13, the number of commissions to four and independent institutions to five -- a total of 22 agencies.

  Speculation abounds that the Executive Yuan's plan to do away with the Mainland Affairs Council has a lot to do with the leadership style of former council chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who was accused of bypassing her supervisor, Premier Yu Shyi-kun, and reporting directly to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

  Tsai, known for her eloquence and fastidiousness, reportedly has little trust in the media. If she was to be quoted in media reports, Tsai is said to have required that Cabinet spokespersons read verbatim from notes she prepared for her contributions to weekly Cabinet meetings.

  Responding to criticism over the plans to abolish the council, Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that the purpose is not to eliminate the council's work, but to upgrade it to a higher administrative status.

  "[Tsai] enjoyed a sound interaction and relationship with the premier. As she reported all council-related matters to the premier in accordance with administrative procedure, the premier fully respects her professional opinions," Chen said.

  Realizing the importance of the council's functions, Chen said they thought it was a better idea to elevate its administrative status to the Cabinet level to be under the direct supervision of the premier.

  "As cross-strait exchanges are becoming more frequent and important, the functions of the mainland policy-making body have to be strengthened and its status promoted," Chen said.

  By making the council a Yuan-level entity, Chen said the Executive Yuan expects the new agency to become more efficient in formulating concrete cross-strait policies laid down by the president and in conducting ministerial negotiations.

  Under the Cabinet's plan, the council's businesses would be integrated into a new Yuan-level mainland affairs office led by a minister without portfolio.

  The government's ethnic agencies have also been targeted in the restructuring.

  Speculation in the media suggested that the Cabinet had decided to absorb the Council of Aboriginal Affairs, the Council of Hakka Affairs and the Council of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs into a larger entity.

  Seemingly seeking to placate the grievances of ethnic minorities, the Cabinet eventually decided not to merge the three agencies.

  Minority groups had pressured the Cabinet not to make the change, saying the plan was a step backward in the government's ethnic policy.

  Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), head of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, the agency handling the restructuring plan, flatly brushed off the speculation. The idea to merge the three agencies had merely been a suggestion by some public administration experts and academics invited by the commission to offer their professional opinion on the government restructuring plan, Yeh said.

  "It was not a political maneuver cooked up overnight as opposition parties charged but a well-thought-out, practical plan," he said. "It's the government's established policy to respect and strengthen cultural diversity.

  "There's no such thing as an about-face in our ethnic policy and we didn't change our stance because of any backlash or opposition."

  Regarding the government's structure, Yeh said that the nation's unique environment and social situation must be taken into account.

  "While the Australian government has the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, Yemen has the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources and South Korean has the Ministry of National Unification, we thought it would only make sense if we continued to keep the Council of Hakka Affairs and Council of Indigenous People despite some people's opposition," Yeh said.

  The Tibetan and Mongolian council, however, will be disbanded. The abolishion does not come as a surprise as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government has long aspired to dispose of the agency, whose functions it deems obsolete.
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