Would Lai Ching-te Do Better than Lin Chuan If He Formed a Cabinet?

 Would Lai Ching-te Do Better than Lin Chuan If He Formed a Cabinet?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 27, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Rumors about a Cabinet reshuffle have been around for quite some time; recent versions all speculate that Lai Ching-te will become Premier, replacing Lin Chuan. However, the Presidential Office, the Cabinet, and Lai Ching-te all denied this, using the fact that Lin Chuan’s “itinerary has been arranged up to year-end” as evidence.

Lai Ching-te's name has been mentioned again and again for several reasons: one, his record of governance in Tainan is not bad; two, he has the ambition and potential to seek the presidency; three, the New Tide faction of the DPP considers him as the rising star to contend the presidency, prodding him to seek the highest post.

However, if Lai Ching-te wants to climb up further, in politics, he also has, in fact, some constraints in objective conditions. First, in comprehensive governance at the national level-- he especially lacks experiences integrating Cabinet agencies. If he takes the premiership, he may not, we are afraid, be capable enough to assume the heavy responsibility. Second, his bright hue as a Taiwan independence faction element, put into nation-wide context, may not be a plus. Third, in politics, Lai Ching-de often shows that he lacks the finesse and wisdom for compromise, exposing his style of heroism characterized by autocracy and individualism.

The fact is that the pressure for a Cabinet reshuffle is extremely great, besides affecting the image of the government, it will entangle the DPP’s prospects in next year's elections; hence, it is definitely not a non-issue. What people should be concerned about is: Would Lai Ching-te do a better job than Lin Chuan if he were Premier?

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