New Southward Policy Office: "Retiring After Successfully Having Completed its Mission"?

 New Southward Policy Office: "Retiring After Successfully Having Completed its Mission"?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 20, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Presidential Palace recently proclaimed that the New Southward Policy Office would be "dismantled" starting next year. In other words, this brain organization charged with planning the New Southward Policy, which was touted with great fanfare by the Tsai government upon its taking office, will “retire after having successfully completed its mission.” That's right. “Retire after having successfully completed its mission” was precisely the ground in the proclamation of the Presidential Palace for dismantling that Office; the wording used was: "Because the goal for this stage has been completed sooner than prescribed, and it has gradually "shown effect."

The New Southward Policy Office will be dismantled; in both name and fact it is “retirement.” However, to say that it has "successfully completed its mission,” we are afraid, would leave the public greatly perplexed. According to earlier estimates of the Presidential Palace, the execution rate of the annual budget for the New Southward Policy Office was only 40% to 50%. In addition, according to the report of the Legislative Budget Center, the execution rate of budgets scattered among the budgets for various Cabinet agencies, was not good either, all under 5%, including the Interior Ministry` and the Public Construction Commission. From this angle, when the government proclaimed "exhibiting effects," what did it really want to say?

Scrutinizing the New Southward Policy initiated by the Tsai government, the goals and the means could not match from the start: first is for avoiding the difficulties in moving westward, second is a lack of clarity in the strategic axis, the third is who was responsible for directing and planning was not certain, and the fourth is the whole thing was denigrated to symbolism, using the capacity for spending money to measure achievements. Precisely because of this, what was described as grandiose par excellence suddenly decided to change its hats, and suddenly that job was left vacant, and suddenly the Office was dismantled. How could it be proclaimed in such high-sounding rhetoric that it has “retired after having successfully completed its mission”?

When we read that the New Southward Policy Office would be dismantled, the public should know that label was a fiction from the very beginning.

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