|
Don’t be fooled by
the likes of Siew
By James Wang 王景弘
Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) has plenty of time to relax these days, having stepped down
in May after serving as vice president throughout President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
first term in office. Only now does he seem to have noticed the hardship that
people in Taiwan have been going through. Following this belated realization,
Siew recently said that there is a pervasive sense of powerlessness, bitterness,
anxiety and unease in Taiwanese society.
Taiwan has lost its sense of direction and the reasons are many. The Ma
administration has been unable to come up with any policy other than total
reliance on China. Taiwan’s economic development has dropped from top to bottom
among the four “Asian Tiger” economies. Unemployment is high, life is difficult
and the young generation sees no future.
Taiwanese people feel that their glory has been badly tarnished. All these
maladies arose during Siew’s four-year term as Ma’s “spare tire,” so why has he
kept quiet about them until now?
Ma hailed Siew as the designer of the economy, but he stumbled almost as soon as
he got out of the starting blocks. Having fallen ill while in office, Siew was
sidelined and spent the remainder of his term recuperating. Now he is taking
potshots at Ma, but he only talks about the problems and does not dare to name
their causes. Instead, he says that we should give Ma a bit more time.
Ma has been in office for less than five years, but the Ma virus has already
made Taiwan weak and disheartened. Surely this sickness should not be allowed to
go on spreading.
Ma syndrome is a combination of third-rate bureaucrats and political hacks. The
only thing they are really good at is picking the right cliches to curry favor
with Ma, who likes to show off. He can hardly say anything without quoting from
ancient philosophers such as Confucius (孔子), Mencius (孟子) and Lao Tzu (老子).
When it comes to the economy, instead of doing what they are paid to do,
officials in the administration prefer to flatter Ma by talking in florid terms
more suitable for reminiscing about days of yore.
Ma’s government is a confused and failed regime. Everyone in it, from top to
bottom, only knows how to play with words and recite arcane Chinese phrases to
hoodwink the public. Unable to come up with comprehensive policies founded on
modern thinking, all they have to offer is otherworldly and impractical
quotations from ancient writers and philosophers.
The bureaucrats of today are even more dull-witted than those of the late Qing
Dynasty, who believed in retaining the essence of Chinese learning while making
good use of Western knowledge.
Members of the Ma administration are the embodiment of bamboo — sharp-tongued,
thick-skinned and hollow inside.
Siew helped Ma out by wrapping him up in a presentable package and coming up
with “Taiwan-friendly” slogans, such as saying that Taiwan’s future must be
decided by its 23 million inhabitants.
Siew cannot hide from his responsibility for fooling people into voting for Ma
through this kind of fawning endorsement. However, as the US saying goes, “Fool
me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Why are so many Taiwanese happy to be fooled again and again?
James Wang is a political commentator.
Translated by Julian Clegg
|
