When the Powers That Be No Longer Listen, Reforms Become Deprivation

 When the Powers That Be No Longer Listen, Reforms Become Deprivation

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

May 18, 2017

 Translation of an Except

President Tsai will soon be in office for a year, but May 20^th, on the other hand, brings forth a series of poll results showing setbacks, as well as protests on the streets that have never ended. Since last August when opinion polls marked a death cross, the Tsai government has never adjusted its tempo of governance, but has come to believe that power and will could conquer all. “This feeling good” attitude has brought forth the government team toward reckless acts to today’s scene of popular grievances everywhere. Tsai Ing-wen harbors strong will and self-confidence about her so-called reforms; however, she has also exhibited some shortcomings in her decision-making. For instance, she was not able to listen to dissenting opinions, lacking ability for adjustment and furthermore lacking compassion, so much so that her decisions go contrary to the reality of society without her knowing.

Going deeper, there are three main cruxes: 1. The entire government team membership lacks enough talent or good structure, resulting in their inability to offer President Tsai diversified, effective, and professional recommendations. 2. Tsai Ing-wen’s leadership style in monopolizing the party, government and military tends to authoritarianism. While it may achieve the goal of letting commands from the top reach the bottom, it, on the other hand, often does not conform to democratic procedure, and also suffocates opportunities to listen to pluralistic public opinion. 3. “The stratosphere” of the Tsai government’s decision-making circle is too narrow; a group of core staff that has surrounded Tsai Ing-wen for a long time may help each other in self-pity, they, on the other hand, have only revolutionary idealism when in opposition, lacking realistic coping, attentive listening, and compromise when in power. And for these reasons, quite a few decisions have shown the naiveté and fantasy of “aristocratic revolution.” 

When the decision makers no longer listen to the voice of the people, only indulging in young literati-style rhetoric, its seemingly florid yet unrealistic pubic policies become deprivation. This is a trap that all reformers fall into. Ironically, yesteryear’s Tsai Ying-wen pledged during her campaign that her government would be "the most communicative in history"; now it has become revealed as empty rhetoric. And when she was elected last year, Tsai reminded the DPP to be "humble, humble, and more humble"; today she is even unable to remind herself. A president jettisoned by public opinion should feel anxiety; however, she should think even more so: what kind of plight is being suffered by the people who have been pushed into predicament by government policies.

Attachment : none