United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

 

July 31, 2018


 Translation of an Excerpt

 

In order to counter Mainland China’s oppression against the East Asian Youth Games scheduled to be held in Taichung City, the Tsai government demanded that Kinmen suspend the ceremony starting the Kinmen-Xiamen water pipeline as a reprisal. Unexpectedly, the Kinmen County government believed that the local population's rights and interests to use water should be given priority consideration and hence decided to hold the ceremony starting the water pipeline as scheduled. This move is tantamount to giving the Tsai government a slap in the face. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), upon hearing the news, surprisingly stated that the water pipeline construction involved tripartite funding by the central government, the county government and the other side of the Strait; without the simultaneous presence of the three parties, it should not be called a "ceremony." This kind of self-effacing solution to a deliberately humiliating incident exposed the Quixotism of the DPP government.

 

After the East Asian Youth Games were scrapped, the Tsai government claimed that "Taiwan was not at fault" and urged "unity of all." Nevertheless, the government's counter-measures are so farfetched that they have cavalierly sacrificed Kinmen people’s water rights; besides self-inflicting a wound, it would not achieve any effect. With such a crude and violent policy decision, how do you urge unity? As expected, as soon as the MAC issued the policy decision to suspend the pipeline starting ceremony, public opinion was one-sided in disagreement. Even the pan-Green New Power Party stated that "matters involving bread and butter issues should be cautiously considered." That Kinmen will hold the ceremony starting the pipeline as scheduled apparently has wide social support.

 

The Tsai government demanded that Kinmen suspend the ceremony starting the pipeline and has been widely criticized; there are several reasons: first, the means is not related to the ends, and the two are not apropos. Second, it has exposed the central government’s autocratic highhandedness and indifference to bread and butter issues of the people. Third, the powers that be do not reflect on the root origin of the problem, only looking for a scapegoat. Fourth, the DPP government is incapable of accomplishing anything, but apt to destroy things. In fact, the East Asian Youth Games and the Kinmen-Xiamen water pipeline construction were both the achievements gained during the Ma Ying-jeou administration; the Tsai government has been in office for a little over two years. The East Asian Youth Games have been destroyed on account of worsening cross-Strait relations; now the Tsai government wants to undermine the cross-Strait water pipeline for Kinmen, which had been accomplished with much difficulty. What are people in the eyes of such a government that only knew how to demonstrate its brute authority?

 

Earlier this year, in the incident of the M503 air route, the DPP government sacrificed the convenience of Taiwan businessmen on the Mainland returning home for the Chinese New Year’s holidays as its bargaining chip; this time, for the ceremony starting the Kinmen-Xiamen water pipeline, the DPP also wanted to duplicate the formula, but was rebuffed by the Kinmen County government. At this time, the MAC, to the surprise of many, said Quixotically with a red face, “without the presence of central government officials, it could not be called a ceremony”; this is indeed a “victory in spirit approach" unrivalled in the whole universe. Going to the bottom of things, to the central government that is set to undermine many things, do the local governments need its participation? Moreover, the water pipeline construction has been completed at this time, but it was the KMT, the then central government, which originally planned and signed the contract for the project, not the DPP. With regard to this point, the Kinmen population should know full-well at heart.