20120308 EDITORIAL: Are we being taken for fools?

EDITORIAL: Are we being taken for fools?

“Is the government taking us for fools?” A growing number of people are asking themselves this question in light of the sudden announcement by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration on Monday night that it would conditionally lift a ban on US beef containing ractopamine residue. The specialists who had attended the third technical advisory committee meeting on this contentious topic on Saturday must certainly have felt like they had been taken for fools by the Ma administration.

First, as far as those who attended the meeting are aware, nowhere during the meeting was it proven that meat containing ractopamine residues is safe. Other than dismissing two conclusions drawn at the second meeting — namely that coronary problems could only be caused by “directly ingesting more than 5,000 micrograms of ractopamine, equivalent to eating 500kg of meat containing ractopamine residue in one sitting” and that “for the past 10 years or more, no research has identified any side effects in consumers who ate such meat” — the only consensus reached at Saturday’s meeting was on suggesting that the central government ask for more information from the US to determine the relation between dead and sick pigs and ractopamine consumption.

A fourth meeting was even promised on Saturday by Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基), who said the matter would be discussed further either next month or in May. Imagine the exasperation felt by the experts when they learned less than 48 hours later that their suggestions were not only disregarded by the Ma administration, but also that their opinions had been distorted, with the Cabinet saying that its conditional lifting of the ban on the use of leanness-enhancing additives in animal feed was based on the conclusions reached following the three technical advisory committee meetings.

To say lawmakers were livid after being ambushed by the Ma administration would be an understatement. Following a Feb. 24 pledge by Premier Sean Chen that the Executive Yuan would not lift the ban on US beef containing ractopamine residue before June without the legislature’s consent, it is little wonder lawmakers across party lines are furious about the Ma administration’s blitzkrieg strike on Monday evening.

Considering that — just a few hours before the Executive Yuan’s announcement on Monday night — that Cabinet officials were still in negotiations with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers who opposed lifting the ban, it is no wonder several KMT lawmakers have joined the opposition’s criticism of the Executive Yuan, lambasting the decision as peremptory.

For poultry farmers, the situation is even more absurd. What does the government expect the nation’s farmers to do when their products are being inspected and rejected for containing traces of ractopamine, while on the other hand the government is moving toward conditionally lifting the import ban on leanness-enhancing feed additives?

The public also cannot help but wonder whether the government is taking consumers’ health seriously by treating the matter in such a hasty and arbitrary manner while trampling on the professional opinion of specialists.

People are encouraged to call the 165 anti-fraud hotline when they encounter suspected scams, but what are they to do in the face of a government that acts like a group of bandits?

EDITORIAL: Are we being taken for fools?

“Is the government taking us for fools?” A growing number of people are asking themselves this question in light of the sudden announcement by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration on Monday night that it would conditionally lift a ban on US beef containing ractopamine residue. The specialists who had attended the third technical advisory committee meeting on this contentious topic on Saturday must certainly have felt like they had been taken for fools by the Ma administration.

First, as far as those who attended the meeting are aware, nowhere during the meeting was it proven that meat containing ractopamine residues is safe. Other than dismissing two conclusions drawn at the second meeting — namely that coronary problems could only be caused by “directly ingesting more than 5,000 micrograms of ractopamine, equivalent to eating 500kg of meat containing ractopamine residue in one sitting” and that “for the past 10 years or more, no research has identified any side effects in consumers who ate such meat” — the only consensus reached at Saturday’s meeting was on suggesting that the central government ask for more information from the US to determine the relation between dead and sick pigs and ractopamine consumption.

A fourth meeting was even promised on Saturday by Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基), who said the matter would be discussed further either next month or in May. Imagine the exasperation felt by the experts when they learned less than 48 hours later that their suggestions were not only disregarded by the Ma administration, but also that their opinions had been distorted, with the Cabinet saying that its conditional lifting of the ban on the use of leanness-enhancing additives in animal feed was based on the conclusions reached following the three technical advisory committee meetings.

To say lawmakers were livid after being ambushed by the Ma administration would be an understatement. Following a Feb. 24 pledge by Premier Sean Chen that the Executive Yuan would not lift the ban on US beef containing ractopamine residue before June without the legislature’s consent, it is little wonder lawmakers across party lines are furious about the Ma administration’s blitzkrieg strike on Monday evening.

Considering that — just a few hours before the Executive Yuan’s announcement on Monday night — that Cabinet officials were still in negotiations with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers who opposed lifting the ban, it is no wonder several KMT lawmakers have joined the opposition’s criticism of the Executive Yuan, lambasting the decision as peremptory.

For poultry farmers, the situation is even more absurd. What does the government expect the nation’s farmers to do when their products are being inspected and rejected for containing traces of ractopamine, while on the other hand the government is moving toward conditionally lifting the import ban on leanness-enhancing feed additives?

The public also cannot help but wonder whether the government is taking consumers’ health seriously by treating the matter in such a hasty and arbitrary manner while trampling on the professional opinion of specialists.

People are encouraged to call the 165 anti-fraud hotline when they encounter suspected scams, but what are they to do in the face of a government that acts like a group of bandits?