With the Gov’t Leadership Role in Chaos, How Could Taiwan Progress?

  With the Gov’t Leadership Role in Chaos, How Could Taiwan Progress?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 14, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

In the recent period, we have seen many Cabinet agencies making ridiculous statements and policy decisions, some of which overstepped their boundaries, and some deviated completely from their roles; these are symbolic of the decline of democracy. For instance, the Interior Ministry recently revised the "Regulatory Rules in the Use of Non-Urban Land," opening up 2,800 public cemeteries in Taiwan for solar power generation; cavalierly revising the use of land to accommodate chaotic energy policies, where is the autonomous stance of the Interior Ministry? For another instance, the role of the functions and duties of the Fair Trade Commission is to safeguard fair competition in the market, but it, however, has reached a settlement with Qualcomm, which monopolized the market, agreeing to allow Qualcomm to turn the astronomical fine of over NT$20 billion into investment, leaving the shackles of unfair competition on related industries. This is another kind of chaotic role.

Under democratic politics, government departments have division of labor with their proper responsibilities, thus the country may be balanced and pursue development. However, since the DPP took complete control of government, in many areas of governance, it has placed safeguarding the DPP’s interests as priorities, in personnel appointments and decision-making, ideology has ruled supreme, while government professionalism and efficiency have been tossed aside. If the powers that be lack stature and vision, and Cabinet members only know how to read their superiors’ minds and try to please them, when they don’t even know the direction of the country, how could it make progress?

Take the instance of President Tsai Ing-wen’s anti-China policy. It not only created stagnation for tourism, industries and cultural exchanges, it has encountered, in the area of diplomacy, a series of setbacks in our designation, downgrading, and the rupture of diplomatic ties. Now, this kind of approach involving self-inflicted injuries has been pushed toward education, attempting to hoodwink the next generation's historical view and world view. The revision of high school textbook guidelines has now become the DPP’s political "ATM," with revisions year after year. Its goal is definitely not to cultivate a panoramic world view for the next generation, but to cover the skies with both hands, only giving them half of the history and a de-Sinicized world, while at the same time further rupturing the fabric of the identity of various different communal groups inside Taiwan.

In a nutshell, Taiwan's current democracy is a kind of unwholesome democracy; our government is not a government that dedicates itself to the people’s welfare, either. The many acts of the Tsai government’s leadership at the present time do not aim at turning Taiwan into a homeland for the people’s life and work in peace, but to attempt to turn the Republic of China into the DPP’s cannon fodder in its confrontation with the Mainland and transform the people into subjects of an island country in its image, with a narrow vision and mentality. Also because of this, Taiwan has more than once sacrificed economic development, and has more than once been compelled to undergo historical and ideological transformation. In actuality, this has not earned in exchange more freedom and emancipation; what the people have gained is more bewilderment, low pay, and the rupture of social fabric.

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