Conference
seeks saner economic plan
‘PIECEMEAL’: From tax cuts
that benefit the rich to policies that create too much dependence on China, the
policies of the Ma administration were picked apart
By Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Feb 22, 2009, Page 3
Participants at the Taiwan Citizen Conference on National Affairs yesterday
called on the government to make better use of its resources to help the poor
and create substantive jobs rather than fund small public construction projects
and create short-term jobs.
“The government was sleeping at the switch when it suddenly faced a rise in
unemployment,” former Council for Economic Planning and Development vice
chairman Chang Ching-sen (張景森) told the conference.
“Its ‘piecemeal’ economic polices cannot resolve the problem,” he said.
The event was hosted by the Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan
Solidarity Union to encourage discussion on economic matters.
Chang said the government should cut inflated budgets and use the money to help
economically disadvantaged people directly.
The government should also use budgets to create jobs in the public sector.
Special emphasis should be put on social programs such as digitizing
Chinese-language books, creating care centers for the elderly and young
children, building community security networks and creating free tutoring
schools for children from poor families, he said.
Liu Chin-hsin (劉進興), a former consultant for the Council of Labor Affairs, said
that the government’s economic policies tended to benefit investors rather than
workers and created too much dependence on China.
Instead, we need to build a healthy economic environment in Taiwan, he said.
He said that allowing Chinese to work in Taiwan — a possibility explored by the
government — would be dangerous at the present time.
Liu called on the government to extend relief funds for unemployment from six
months to nine months and improve the social security network before a potential
rise in unemployment.
Chien Hsi-chieh, executive director of the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan,
criticized the tax reduction measures adopted by the government.
He said the new reductions benefited the rich and increased the tax burden on
low and middle-income earners.
Statistics showed that some rich people do not pay income tax, while the
exchange and estate taxes have been reduced, Chien said.
The working class pays 75 percent of the nation’s total tax revenue, which shows
an imbalance in tax liability between employers and employees, he said.
Also attending the conference was former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who
said that she would take a NT$500,000 cut in her annual retirement benefits this
year, which amount to NT$3.5 million, so that the government could use the money
to help disadvantaged people.
Lu also called on her “former colleagues” to follow her example, saying that it
was time for Taiwanese society to develop a social conscience and to strive for
greater justice.
DPP
legislators accuse Ma of lying about donations
By Lee Hsin-fang
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Feb 22, 2009, Page 3
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and other
DPP legislators yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of filing a false
report on political donations of NT$670 million (US$19.25 million) and requested
that prosecutors investigate a recent claim made by former president Chen
Shui-bian (陳水扁).
After visiting Chen at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei
County, yesterday, Southern Taiwan Society director Cheng Yu (鄭煜) said Chen had
told him that two “important individuals” had each made donations of NT$1
billion to Ma in the hope that they would be made premier.
Ker said he had heard Chen talk about the issue before, adding that no one
believed Ma had only spent NT$670 million on his presidential campaign.
Prosecutors should look into Ma’s campaign expenditure report, Ker said, adding
it was unfair that only Chen would be investigated on such matters.
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) agreed with Ker that an investigation should
be launched, as did DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德), who said that although he
had not heard Chen talk about the matter, he believed the former president had
good reasons for making such allegations.
Lai also questioned how some businesses had so readily admitted to making
donations to DPP presidential and vice presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷)
and Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) election campaign while not making any donations to
Ma.
How is this possible, given that many companies are generally perceived as
pan-blue, he asked.
Looking at the manner in which the Special Investigation Panel had investigated
Chen, Lai said prosecutors should also investigate the pan-blue camp.
He said he hoped prosecutors would launch an investigation based on the
information provided by Chen and make the results public.
Heritage smeared
over Tkacik
Cao Changqing’s (曹長青) commentary “The KMT is a master at silencing dissidents”
(Feb. 18, page 8) is plain wrong; indeed, the whole article is unworthy of the
Taipei Times’ editorial page, which has many sound analytical and commentary
pieces.
Dr John Tkacik was not forced out of The Heritage Foundation. He retired for
personal reasons which have absolutely nothing to do with Ambassador Jason Yuan
(袁健生), the KMT or Taiwan funding for The Heritage Foundation. The Heritage
Foundation has made a number of statements to this point.
Dr Tkacik wrote on many issues in addition to Taiwan. His work was always well
researched, principled and deemed a valuable contribution to US policy toward
Asia. It never demonstrated any characteristic other than full-forced support
for US interests in Asia, not as a proxy for domestic Taiwan consumption — even
if some of his material was used by third parties in that manner. Taiwan as a
nation benefited from Dr Tkacik’s commentary and analysis regardless of
political affiliation.
Finally, The Heritage Foundation is one of the world’s leading think tanks with
significant resources raised in many quarters of America and the world. It is
wholly implausible that any possible unrestricted contribution from the Taiwan
government, which would surely represent significantly less than 1 percent of
the institution’s annual budget, could or would be leveraged to force personnel
changes. Such a position runs contrary to the reputation of The Heritage
Foundation built over decades.
This story is a complete canard.
RUPERT HAMMOND-CHAMBERS
President, US-Taiwan Business Council
The US fears
Taiwan
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Asia, and like every other
US official, she bypasses Taiwan. What is it about Taiwan that strikes fear in
the hearts of US leaders? It is an island no bigger than Louisiana, home to 23
million people laboring for democracy and is a friend of the US.
The fortitude of the Taiwanese in fighting tyranny and oppression while striving
for hope and democracy is to be admired and emulated.
Could it be that when the US government acknowledges Taiwan, it must confront
its own Janus-faced reflection? The US, which prides itself on supporting
democracies like Taiwan, must recognize its willful business relations with
communist countries like China.
And what of China, a country that has given us SARS, tainted food products and
toxic children’s toys, oppresses civil and political rights and restricts
freedom of the press?
The US has been straddling the Taiwan Strait for decades and the longer she
tries balancing herself with one foot on China and one foot on Taiwan, the more
likely she will end up all wet.
NORMA CHRISTIANSEN
Taichung