KMT lawmakers take aim at premier
　

POLITICAL FALL-OUT: Water Resources Agency head Chen Shen-hsien and National Policy Adviser Lin Huo-wang have become the latest officials to offer their resignations
　

By Flora Wang and Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTERS
Friday, Aug 21, 2009, Page 1
　

The political storm surrounding Typhoon Morakot relief efforts showed no sign of abating yesterday, as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers singled out Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) for neglecting his duties while southern Taiwan was suffering under Morakot’s onslaught.

KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said Liu spent Father’s Day on Aug. 8 in Hsinchu even though he knew about the serious flooding in southern Taiwan.

“When Premier Liu traveled to the Central Emergency Operation Center [CEOC] with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at 3pm [on Aug 8], he must have learned of the typhoon’s serious impact on southern Taiwan,” Chiu told reporters at the legislature.

“Yet he spent the whole night [celebrating] Father’s Day in Hsinchu and did not return to the center the next day,” Chiu said.

Chiu alleged Liu’s close aide tried to conceal the truth when the lawmaker confronted him, and he demanded Ma immediately replace Liu for failing to take command of the CEOC while the typhoon was pounding the nation.
　

KMT Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) said replacing Liu was the only way to save Ma’s approval ratings from dropping further.

“Only by removing Liu Chao-shiuan can Ma Ying-jeou show that he will shoulder all responsibility,” Wu said.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus also urged Ma yesterday to replace Liu before the fall legislative session begins on Sept. 18.

Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓), however, said Chiu’s allegations were “unfair.”

Liu was at the CEOC during the afternoon on Father’s Day and was monitoring the situation, Su said, adding that Liu continued to talk to officials involved in the rescue efforts by telephone after he went home.

Su said that Liu traveled to Kaohsiung County the next morning to inspect the disaster zone instead of returning to the CEOC.

Top Cabinet officials came under fire for spending time on personal business instead of disaster relief work the weekend Morakot hit and the following days.

Liu was slammed for getting a haircut after a trip to inspect several disaster-hit areas on Aug. 11, while Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) was criticized for attending a Father’s Day dinner at a five-star Taipei hotel on Aug. 8.

Hsueh tendered his resignation on Wednesday, as did Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) over the government’s rescue efforts.

Water Resources Agency Director General Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢) confirmed yesterday that he had submitted his resignation to Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) three or four days ago.

Chen said that while he and his team have been working hard since Morakot struck, he was willing to take full responsibility for public criticism.

He also said the agency would examine its efforts and make the necessary improvements.

Yiin has yet to approve Chen Shen-hsien’s resignation.

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) national policy adviser Lin Huo-wang (林火旺) offered his resignation yesterday after he slammed the Cabinet’s slow response to Morakot, describing it as a “cold-blooded government.”

During a TVBS’ political talk show, 2100 Public Talk, on Monday, Lin said Liu had gone to have his hair dyed on Aug. 11 and that Hsueh had attended a Father’s Day dinner.

NO PRESSURE

Lin denied he had resigned under pressure from the Presidential Office but acknowledged that he had been rapped for tarnishing the administration’s image.

Lin said he was a national adviser to the president, not an adviser to the KMT.

“If a government’s behavior is not in the interest of its people, why should the people not criticize it?” Lin told reporters yesterday.

Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the office respected Lin’s decision to resign from his unpaid post.

Meanwhile, a poll released by Global Views (遠見雜誌) magazine yesterday showed more than 78 percent of respondents said the administration had done a poor job in handling the typhoon, and a majority said a Cabinet reshuffle was necessary.

The poll by the Global Views Survey Research Center found that 78.2 percent of the respondents gave the administration’s crisis management ability a failing grade, with 42.8 percent saying Liu must be replaced, while 58.2 percent said a reshuffle was needed, a 12.4 percent increase compared with a similar poll last September.

UNPOPULAR

Ma’s popularity fell to 22.9 percent, which the pollster said signified a loss of 1.33 million of those who voted for him in last year’s presidential election.

The premier’s popularity dropped to 18.8 percent, while the Cabinet’s approval rating fell to 16.7 percent, both all-time lows since the KMT returned to power last year.
　

Groups disappointed with probe
　

OLD MYSTERIES: Reinvestigations into high-profile deaths under the previous KMT administration failed to shed any new light on unanswered questions, groups said
　

By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Aug 21, 2009, Page 2

The Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation yesterday questioned the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office’s reinvestigation into the murder of the family members of former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and urged the office to publicize all original records of investigations relevant to the case.

At a public hearing at the legislature, Wu Nai-teh (吳乃德), a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica and president of the association, said members of the organization were deeply disappointed when reading through the office’s report on the reinvestigation into the case.

“[The report] not only failed to clarify any suspicious points [of the case] but also failed to elaborate on some major questions that might help solve the case,” Wu said.

“The report reinforces the public’s [negative] impression of the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and regrettably fails to help the politically polarized nation move toward reconciliation,” Wu said.

The prosecutors office reopened the Lin family murder case and the probe into the death of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a math professor who is believed to have been murdered in March 1981 during the White Terror by the KMT government.

However, after a four-month investigation, prosecutors concluded on July 28 that they were unable to make any breakthrough in the Lin case because they lacked sufficient forensic evidence.

Prosecutors said they also did not find any evidence showing that the former Taiwan Garrison Command had been involved in killing Lin’s mother and twin daughters in 1980.

Wu said if prosecutors could clarify that past intelligence organizations kept the Lin family under 24-hour surveillance, prosecutors could conclude that the murderer was related to the organizations.

The association hoped prosecutors could make public more details of their investigation, including whether they found any documents recording past intelligence agencies’ surveillance of dissidents, Wu said.

An official from the Professor Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation also questioned the prosecutors’ reinvestigation into Chen’s death during the hearing.

Hsieh Ying-ching (謝穎青), a lawyer at the foundation, said the prosecutors’ conclusion still failed to explain if Chen died on the campus of National Taiwan University, where the 31-year-old professor’s body was found, or whether he died elsewhere and the body was moved. Chen’s body was found the day after he was questioned by the Garrison Guard on July 2, 1981.

Prosecutors also failed to find solid evidence to prove that Chen was not drugged or battered before death, Hsieh said.

An autopsy report at the time said judging from Chen’s injuries, he had fallen to his death from either the fourth or fifth floor of a building. However, it is still unclear whether the professor was pushed or committed suicide.

Hsieh urged prosecutors to make public all documented interviews or polygraph tests of witnesses related to Chen’s case.

Ma has China in mind, not Taiwan

Friday, Aug 21, 2009, Page 8

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been roundly condemned for his and the government’s lackadaisical attitude to the human suffering caused by Typhoon Morakot.

The lack of empathy shown to victims by Ma and senior Cabinet members in the days after Morakot struck has left a bad taste in the mouth of many that is not likely to fade. This could impact on the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) performance in December’s local elections, not to mention Ma’s chances of re-election in 2012.

Despite the public outrage, stepping down to take responsibility was never a realistic possibility. However, how Ma and a reshuffled administration deal with the challenges of reconstruction and resettlement will have a large say on his party’s prospects in the next presidential election.

The president has hoped to divert public anger, for example, by attributing the delay in rescue efforts following the storm to bad weather.

This has taken the spotlight away from the lack of pre-storm preparedness and the failure to evacuate people from areas that were at high risk of flooding, as has been done in the past.

What senior officials did — or rather failed to do — ahead of and during the storm has only begun to come to light.

Unfortunately, Ma, ever the opportunist, has taken advantage of the public’s lowered guard to further his cross-strait agenda, exploiting demands for improvements to government rescue efforts to make subtle yet significant changes to the military’s objectives. These changes will in all probability weaken an already demoralized fighting force.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Ma said that disaster prevention and rescue would become the main task of the armed forces and that nature — not China, with its 1,500 ballistic missiles and growing arsenal of high-tech weaponry — was now Taiwan’s biggest enemy.

Ma promised to buy 15 fewer Black Hawk helicopters from the US than previously planned and use the savings on new rescue equipment.

A disturbing consequence of Morakot, therefore, has been a further reduction in military strength and an even softer attitude toward the only country that threatens Taiwan. China’s belligerence has not waned, nor has it retracted its threat to use force against Taiwan.

Another issue that has escaped the attention of many in this time of crisis is the government’s failure to put together a UN bid this year.

In this respect, Morakot couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment for Ma and his discredited Cabinet.

If there is one thing that almost everyone can agree on in Taiwan, it is that Taiwan belongs in the UN. Yet, once again, Ma and his government have failed the public. As was seen with the initial refusal of post-Morakot foreign aid, the government’s primary consideration is cross-strait relations and what Beijing will think of its actions.

If Ma wants to win a second term, he needs to stop focusing on China and start focusing on Taiwan. His preoccupation with the “mainland” is hurting the very people who made him what he is.

A brave, resilient people

Friday, Aug 21, 2009, Page 8

When Typhoon Morakot crashed into Taiwan, it felt like the end of the world for villagers whose homes were washed away by raging rivers and powerful mudslides.

For those who were fortunate enough to survive and for the rest of Taiwan, Morakot and its aftermath was a lesson in gratitude — gratitude to those who helped victims, rescued victims or donated food and clothing to village relief centers, and gratitude to those who stood by victims, prayed for them and never gave up hope that life would go on.

And life does go on. Taiwan will recover as always and the people will become more resilient, wiser and better prepared for the next big storm or earthquake. Taiwanese are a hardy bunch of people and natural disasters have struck Taiwan for thousands of years.

Yes, Morakot brought the worst flooding in 50 years, but Taiwanese are brave and will face the future together.

In good time, farms will recover, tea plantations will welcome tourists and Taiwan will rejoice over the miracle that is life. Lessons in gratitude and thanksgiving, indeed.

DAN BLOOM
Chiayi

Ma’s comments are baffling

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) takes apparent pride in his ability to communicate with the international press without an interpreter.

His remarks of late to foreign reporters shed light on his administration.

In an attempt to brush off charges that delays in the government’s response to Typhoon Morakot exacerbated the calamity, Ma made a curious statement to a British TV reporter: “They are not prepared.”

It seemed to imply that victims had brought the catastrophe upon themselves.

Ma’s response was no less astonishing the next time he faced foreign media.

When asked about the government’s disaster response by a CNN reporter days after Morakot struck, Ma said: “I’ll take the full responsibility,” but then added “We might punish those people who are responsible.”

Ma, it seems, playing the part of a traditional Chinese benevolent ruler, was only feigning “imperial humility.”

He had no intention of bearing any responsibility for the widespread suffering — and perhaps a higher death toll — that resulted from his inexplicable yet deliberate withholding of resources even after the scope of the disaster was apparent.

Ma’s comments since the typhoon have been an eye-opener for the public, but Taiwanese may not be the only ones learning something new about Ma.

On the Monday after Morakot struck, the US Department of State made an unsolicited offer to contribute the US military’s vast experience with inhospitable terrains to the search and rescue mission.

Washington said it was ready to go, yet was kept cooling its heels while Ma squandered precious time.

Four days passed before the US military received the green light to go in.

Washington must wonder whether Ma would cooperate with or impede US efforts in case of an emergency relevant to the Taiwan Relations Act.

Previously, the US’ main concern with Taiwan’s decline in military readiness in terms of hardware and software was its potential impact on US casualties if its military intervened in a cross-strait crisis.

That was based on the premises that the Taiwanese government would be on the same page as Washington.

Ma, who recently received Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) congratulations on winning the Chinese Nationalist Party chairmanship, has let Beijing down.

China needs Ma to put it in the best light in front of Taiwanese to facilitate unification.

Instead, many Taiwanese now believe Beijing prevented Ma from accepting timely foreign aid to deal with Morakot. The public might even conclude that the incident offers a preview of what unification would be like.

HUANG JEI-HSUAN
Los Angeles, California

Ma is too weak to lead

Your Aug. 18 editorial (page 8) quoted Chinese assistant professor Jian Junbo (簡軍波) of Shanghai’s Fudan University as calling President Ma Ying-jeou an opportunist who “lacks foresight and strategy, with hesitation and self-contradiction manifest in his Mainland policy.”

It is apparent that Ma is no longer fully trusted by China. Moreover, since Typhoon Morakot, Ma is no longer trusted by Taiwanese or foreigners.

Where will Ma lead Taiwan? One thing about his pro-China policy that Ma has not told the public is who will unify China and Taiwan — China or Taiwan?

An opportunist like Ma will bring political disaster upon the nation if he stays in office. His weak leadership will not improve.

Taiwan needs a real “Mr Democracy” who cares about the public and rejects unification under military threat from China. Ma should resign.

NI KUO-JUNG
Hsinchu

Morakot has revealed the true Ma
　

By Jerome Keating
Friday, Aug 21, 2009, Page 8

‘Ma is struggling to preserve his image as a leader. It is a tough struggle when everything points to faulty, ill-prepared and ill-coordinated government rescue efforts.’

What world does President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) live in? After Typhoon Morakot, it is a world of images — images past and images present. It is a world of imaginary images that have been built on, fostered and fashioned by years of faulty Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) paradigms and reinforced by their propaganda.

In the mind of Ma, his party and his spin-masters, image has always trumped performance. Taiwanese are finally realizing this and realizing that regardless of his words, Ma has no idea what it is to be Taiwanese.

Ma grew up on images of Chinese grandeur. As his parents’ only son, his family’s hopes were pinned on him; in the eyes of his four doting sisters, he could do no wrong; he was cast in the image of family hero.

His family ranked high in the KMT, a party of colonial outsiders who imagined that it was their destiny to save the inferior Taiwanese.

The KMT, too, could do no wrong. Disregarding why they lost the war against the communists and forced to flee China, the KMT educated Ma to fit with the image of a glorious one-party state that would one day return as heroes to China.

But images are only images. Sooner or later, everyone must face reality. For Ma and the people of Taiwan, Typhoon Morakot hastened this.

The foreign media had previously been kind to Ma, fostering his image as a “Harvard-educated lawyer,” even though he never passed the bar exam in either the US or Taiwan.

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Ma’s rival for the presidency, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), did pass the bar exam in Taiwan, but the foreign media has never touted their legal backgrounds. Ma surely felt he had the advantage.

Likewise, countries like the US and others portray Ma as a statesman, leader and peacemaker in the Taiwan Strait. It is an image with little substance: Ma has done little to earn it except acquiesce to Chinese demands and downplay Taiwan’s identity and sovereignty.

This image of Ma suits the agendas of those countries and their economies and so has their support.

Even Ma has bought into this idea of himself, coming to believe that he is a statesman and peacemaker. That fits with his image of himself: He can do no wrong.

Then came Typhoon Morakot and its unprecedented floods. The destruction is not an image but reality and has tested Ma’s leadership.

As Taiwan struggles to recover from Morakot, the public is seeing a different man in Ma. When action was needed, Ma offered hesitation. Foremost in his mind, it seemed, was not the devastation in the south but rather how to protect his image with China and the world.

What effect would it have on his image in China as a peacemaker in favor of unification if he accepted help from other countries?

Ma is struggling to preserve his image as a leader. It is a tough struggle when everything points to faulty, ill-prepared and ill-coordinated government rescue efforts.

As commander-in-chief, Ma bears responsibility for this, and he knew that he would have to shoulder that responsibility sooner or later.

Yet it is clear from comments he has made to media that his idea of shouldering responsibility is finding someone else to blame — someone that can take the fall for him and protect his image.

This strategy worked when Ma was accused of corruption and mishandling funds. His secretary served time in jail for depositing nearly US$500,000 in Ma’s bank account.

Despite this, local and foreign media preserved his image as squeaky clean.

But there are other, deeper struggles. Ma is struggling to identify with and empathize with the public.

He spoke of the victims in terms of “they” and not “we” after the typhoon struck: They should have gotten out of the way; they should have had foresight.

But this time, the public is not buying Ma’s talk. They have lost too much and suffered too much and will not tolerate being labeled as fools who should have gotten out of the way of Morakot.

The survivors of Morakot know who helped them and who didn’t and how long it took before help arrived. The public has finally come face to face with the real Ma, not the image of the man they had chosen for president.

Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.

Improving disaster prevention measures
　

By Hochen Tan 賀陳旦
Friday, Aug 21, 2009, Page 8

A little more than a month before the 10th anniversary of the 921 Earthquake, Typhoon Morakot devastated central and southern Taiwan. Nature reminded us that we live in a disaster-prone land and face drastic climate change. The question is whether the public is fully aware of this.

The annual water volume of Kaoping River (高屏溪) is 8 billion tonnes, the largest of Taiwan’s rivers. Eighty-five percent of the water runs into the sea, while the average percentage of other rivers is 70 percent.

Both Kaohsiung and Pingtung have plenty of groundwater, with the result that Pingtung County residents rely on this instead of public tap water. The excessive pumping of groundwater for years has caused some areas to sink below sea level.

Exploiting water resources in an area already prone to flooding has ended in disaster.

Furthermore, climate change has caused an increased concentration of rainwater within a storm system. No one expected Morakot to bring more than 2m of rain.

Water control projects are designed to allow water to run into the sea quickly. However, the flow in ditch-style rivers is too fast and the rainwater cannot be absorbed by the soil. As a result, even relatively light rain can cause trouble because the rainwater flows to these rivers and hits embankments and bridges with force. Bridges and other infrastructure cannot hold up. Poor water management is exacerbating this problem.

One question to ask now is whether the government’s eight-year, NT$116 billion (US$3.5 million) water management project — launched in 2006 — has led to faster flow in rivers during storms.

About 2,400 people died in the earthquake 10 years ago. In the wake of the quake, Taiwan began to control the planting of betel nut trees on slopes and identify areas at risk of mudslides, and it stopped repairs on the damaged section of the Central Cross-Island Highway.

Unfortunately, repairs restarted last year.

Has Taiwan done enough?

Looking at this latest disaster and listening to the criticism of foreign media, it has become clear that Taiwan never made a conscious decision on what measures to take.

How can Taiwan compensate those who have lost family members and land to Morakot? Taiwan needs to draft long-term plans for the disaster areas.

Industry and villages in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties should be part of national land management plans. This would help develop business activities suitable to the local topography and culture. Tourism and local Aboriginal arts should be promoted, for example.

More than NT$4.5 billion donated after the 921 Earthquake and kept by the Cabinet’s disaster relief foundation should be unfrozen and put toward improving disaster prevention measures and the efficiency of disaster response mechanisms.

The government and lawmakers across party lines should cooperate to pass national land protection legislation — including the draft national land planning act and national land restoration act.

The government at all levels should draw up conservation areas and propose agricultural plans in accordance with these laws.

The government should also approve the management guidelines for Kaoping River and the special act regarding the management of related catchment areas, which was drafted in March. It should also set a deadline to draw up guidelines for dealing with the management of catchment areas for Taiwan’s four other major rivers.

Hochen Tan is chairman of the Taiwan Ecological Engineering Development Foundation.