Lai Ching-te's Exalted Moral Tune and Lowly Democratic Culture

  Lai Ching-te's Exalted Moral Tune and Lowly Democratic Culture

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 28, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

While in opposition, the DPP left the people an impression of "combativeness"; now in complete control of government, this unique characteristic has morphed into an unbearable "refusal to admit mistakes." This was especially apparent as the DPP demonstrated in the "August 23 flooding." The flash flooding in southern Taiwan was met with severe criticism; Premier Lai Ching-te even used an “act of God” to rebut critics in a high pitch, saying that with such torrential rains, "How could any place avoid being flooded?" Although he apologized the following day, he still declared in a high pitch, “I will assume all responsibility, " and demanded that "the Blue and Green suspend attacking each other." These utterances exposed the DPP’s mentality of being intolerable of any criticisms.

The greatest destructive force of "August 23^rd torrential rains" is the complete debunking of the "myth of flood control" in Kaohsiung and Tainan, which are two cities involved in the myth and which have been under long-term DPP administration. Before he understood the actual situation of the flooding, Lai Ching-te boasted that Taiwan has "more resilience in countering disasters than Japan"; and provocatively challenged the critics to come out and "be God," and tell us where it rained and yet would not be flooded.

In order to counterattack the debunking of the flood control achievement in Tainan, Lai Ching-te’s opening gambit was using "God" as his protective shield; this is a rarely-seen high-pitch approach in Taiwan's political world. Lai Ching-te’s intention was to strike preemptively, first occupying a moral high ground, forestalling any criticisms from ordinary folks in the temporal world.

With respect to society’s criticism of the flooding, Premier Lai attributed the cause completely to the malice of the opposition party, and asked the opposition party to "suspend attacks" under the pretext of "disaster relief is the priority." This kind of approach of response, in reality, reflects Premier Lai's attitude of being intolerable of criticisms and also reveals the true picture of his lack of democratic culture. The DPP, while in opposition, was combative; now in full control of the government, it is using every means to suppress the opposition party. How come once encountering such a catastrophic event of disastrous flooding, it was thinking of using a moral high pitch to silence its rivals? What democratic culture is this?

Lai Ching-te has been Premier for nearly a year; his support rating has passed the cross of death. The causes are that many of Lai Ching-te’s experiences when governing Tainan were not adequate to be applicable to the entire country; his moral halo has been becoming tarnished as his record of governance has not been as expected. The most serious aspect is that he has unwittingly revealed arrogance and lowly democratic culture, which the populace finds unbearable.

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