The Old Blue Male's Predicament Is Precisely that of the Tsai Gov’t

 The Old Blue Male's Predicament Is Precisely that of the Tsai Gov’t

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 6, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Lai Ching-te succeeded Lin Chuan as Premier; for the DPP, perhaps this is a step in achieving its great cause of "complete control of government," which has been the DPP’s ambition. Lin Chuan, the self-styled “outsider” has left; the next wave for clean-up will inevitable be "old Blue male" cabinet members, who have long been bearing the blame.

If the appearance of "old Blue males" was considered as a gesture of goodwill on the part of Tsai Ying-wen in last year's Cabinet line-up, it was in fact a compromise between ideals and reality. For this reason, she was glad to promote a number of Blue camp figures whose color was not that bright. However, on the other hand, Tsai Ying-wen knew that although the DPP had had experience as the ruling party, it had not cultivated adequate professional talents with stature in national defense, diplomacy, cross-Strait affairs and fiscal-economic areas. For this reason, in order to maintain a reasonable equilibrium in the totality of governance, some positions must rely on figures outside of the Green camp. This was out of consideration for political and strategic equilibrium, and also a compromise between ideals and reality. Regrettably, when they entered the pragmatic side of political operations, this kind of thinking could hardly achieve the goals at the decision-making level; what’s more, they have met challenges from within the DPP and from the Taiwan independence faction, so much so that they took a path slanting out of form.

Today, the Tsai government administrative team is not running smoothly; the reasons are fourfold. One is President Tsai's overextended hand, oppressing the space for political appointees to develop; the second is the political climate is not good, making talent view joining the government as a feared path; the third is within the DPP exists a huge desire for fighting for power and positions, while its capacity is too weak for resolving difficulties and disputes for the people; the fourth is over-obsession with personal aura, while neglecting the importance of professionalism and teamwork. Today, with the change of Premier and a handful of officials, if other factors remain unchanged, and someone says that the efficacy of governance would blossom, we are afraid, it would be wishful thinking.

Some old Blue males should indeed be changed, but if in the eyes of the powers that be, there is only color and no professionalism, only individuals and no team, then what difference would it have with blindness?

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