Popular Grievances Burn Like Fire: Tsai Ing-wen Ought Not to Misinterpret Yellow Vest Movement

 Popular Grievances Burn Like Fire: Tsai Ing-wen Ought Not to Misinterpret Yellow Vest Movement

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 13, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

A "Yellow Vest Movement" recently erupted in France; hundreds of thousands of people wearing traffic police yellow vests, because they have been dissatisfied with the government abruptly raising fuel taxes in a massive scale, staged demonstrations and even riots in Paris and other major cities for several weeks. Popular grievances are like fire, compelling French President Macron to announce, reluctantly, the cancellation of plans to adjust fuel taxes, and also announce pay increases for grassroots laborers and tax cuts for pensioners. Macron, as a new political star, only rose to power last year at 39, because of a careless slip, fell into disgrace; the public’s expectations of him also quickly evaporated.

Tsai Ing-wen's disastrous defeat in the mid-term elections and Macron's fall from his heyday have several points of similarities: First, both became arrogant out of victory, not willing to look squarely at or listen to vox populi. Second, both hoist high the banner of "reform" and believe that they have enormous legitimacy, but have overlooked the conditions of realities. Third, both came from wealthy families, while having not an iota of knowledge about the hardships of the grassroots masses seeking to make ends meet. Fourth, both believe that "social reforms" could be achieved relying solely on convictions, or having a simple, usable recipe, yet not knowing that it would require a more complex understanding and diagnosis.

Looking back at the local elections in Taiwan, with the Han Kuo-yu vogue churning up from Kaohsiung a great political overturn across Taiwan, the message revealed in fact had similar traceable veins comparable to the "Yellow Vest Movement." The grassroots masses in Taiwan-- including farmers, fishermen and the young generation, all feel dissatisfied with their living conditions in recent years and sense fury against the government's governance that betrays the people’s livelihood. More specifically, there exists not a "generational gap" but a "class gap." Tsai Ing-wen has long been striving for reforms through the vision of "generational gaps," not knowing that the more serious problem lies in the expanding class divergences. Among them, her rigid cross-Strait policies kept “casting stones on the person drowning in the well,” as the Chinese saying goes, while completely unaware.

Popular grievances spread like fire in the Internet era; if Tsai Ing-wen puts emphasis on "misinformation," she will be destined to be engulfed by fire. This should never be misjudged. Look at Macron’s apologies and concessions, and then think about Taiwan. The people are still waiting for President Tsai’s apologies!

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