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The Liberty Times
Editorial: Ma’s continued ivory tower rule
Ever since he took office, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has turned Taiwan upside
down and damaged both political and economic structures in what he describes as
his three reforms. This, combined with the European sovereign-debt crisis, has
hit the nation hard and this year it has seen negative export growth. In
addition, the economic growth rate is continually being revised downward by
domestic and overseas research institutes and it seems that Ma faces a hard time
keeping his campaign promises.
During the recent Tropical Storm Talim, which was predicted to cause massive
havoc, it was thought Ma would use the potential disaster as an excuse to stop
promoting the policies which are creating so much domestic upheaval.
Unexpectedly, despite his approval rating being at less than 20 percent, Ma has
decided to push ahead with his terrible policies.
The huge consumer price increases brought about by recent price hikes in fuel
and electricity costs have made life very hard for the public. These huge social
costs could have been avoided. Because of Ma’s unwillingness to first reform
state-owned enterprises and rid them of corruption and because of the
government’s misjudgement of international oil price trends, price hikes were
enforced and called “reforms.” This is what caused consumer prices to rise.
Last week, fuel prices were reduced for the 12th time in a row and CPC Corp,
Taiwan announced that from this month fuel prices will once again be reflective
of the prices charged on the market. After 12 weeks of chaos, we are right back
to where we started, although, of course, consumer prices will not return to
where they were 12 weeks ago.
The question now is, since Taiwan Power Co uses petroleum and natural gas as
fuel and since the international prices of petroleum and natural gas are
falling, why are there no indications that Taipower’s staged price increases
will come to an end?
Unfortunately, although the fuel and electricity price increases have been
proven to be a mistake, Ma has not only failed to apologize to the public, but
he has continued to pretend he was right. He was even shameless enough to call
the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee to a meeting
during the recent tropical storm and, using milk powder as an example, claimed
that consumer prices would return to their previous levels.
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) embodied the sycophantic nature of
all of Ma’s officials by going to great lengths to defend the government’s
policies and criticize the public for complaining every time reforms are
proposed. He said the government is still being criticized for a single NT$3.5
increase in the price of fuel, but no one has thanked it for lowering prices 11
times in a row. It really is disheartening to see such a shameless display of
sycophancy.
In the past, Ma blamed the public for not understanding economics. However,
reality shows that the average citizen has a better grasp of economics than Ma.
At least they understand that once prices in restaurants and bread shops go up
they will not come back down, and just because the price of rice wine might have
dropped and milk powder costs might have stabilized, does not mean other
products are doing the same.
Ma is happy to be known as the president who kept down rice wine prices,
however, the public cannot get by on rice wine and milk powder alone.
Politicians seem to be out of touch with the lives of ordinary people.
The refusal to correct its errors is one of the defining characteristics of the
Ma administration. The government still hopes that the relaxing of beef imports
from the US containing the leanness-enhancing livestock feed additive
ractopamine and the capital gains tax can be passed in the legislature during
the extraordinary session this month, although these run against the public
will.
Most people are opposed to relaxing US beef import restrictions, except the
government, and the KMT was unable to get the controversial bill through the
legislature. The Ma government is now trying to stall things until later this
month and is now facing strong resistance from within the KMT. Some legislators
have openly criticized the move as a mere face-saving attempt for the benefit of
a certain person. Such actions have caused many people to lose their trust in
the KMT.
The way in which Chang has sought to push through the capital gains tax during
this month’s extraordinary session is yet another unbelievable display of the Ma
administration’s stubbornness and inflexibility. The capital gains tax is about
justice and nobody is opposed to that. However, the timing, methods and effects
of the tax need to be evaluated and adjusted in a pragmatic fashion. This is the
only way to ensure that tax justice is delivered at the same time that
government revenue is boosted.
However, with economic growth dropping, the European sovereign-debt crisis still
hitting Taiwan and exports and domestic demand both low, it is evident that now
is not a good time to start raising taxes. Since the current securities
transaction tax is essentially a capital gains tax, a new capital gains tax can
be put off for the time being to avoid further hurting an already ailing
economy. However, nobody would have expected Chang to push through on the
capital gains tax just because, as he said, the resignation of former minister
of finance Christina Liu (劉憶如) would have been a waste otherwise.
In all honesty, an official stepping down is not a big deal, nor is the
president’s reputation. What is important is whether policies are correct or
not. Only those that are correct should be seen through: losing a few government
officials or Ma losing face has nothing to do with public well-being.
Using excuses like these to push forward policies that are not in line with
public opinion or out of touch with the times is probably something that even
dictators in communist countries would balk at.
However, in Taiwan, supposedly a democracy, all the officials in the Ma
administration are promoting policies that are out of step with the times or
public opinion. This is a sign of the regression of Taiwan’s democracy.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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