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Bad policy is even worse than corruption
By Lu I-ming §f¤@»Ê
Tuesday, Apr 06, 2010, Page 8
The Wenhu MRT line and the Maokong Gondola have been painful experiences for
Taipei City residents. Both were funded by the taxpayers, but the decisionmakers
who messed them up seem to have little regard for such niceties. It didn¡¦t even
help that the Control Yuan launched a probe into the MRT line.
The overall budget for the Wenhu MRT line was NT$66.7 billion (US$2.1 billion),
which including the price of land translates into an average cost of NT$4.8
billion per kilometer, far more than the NT$2.8 billion required for the
high-speed railway. Excluding land prices, the average is NT$3.6 billion per
kilometer. It stands to reason that any decent government should discuss whether
it spends taxpayers¡¦ money wisely. In this case, however, the construction costs
were extremely high and there have been many stoppages since the line went into
service. Data compiled by the Consumers¡¦ Foundation shows that between July 5
and July 11 last year, the incident rate was 71 percent and from July 4 to Aug.
12, it was still a substantial 43 percent.
The city government claims it has increased maintenance work, but stoppages
continue. As recently as March 24, service was interrupted because the power
supply for the entire line went down. The apparently insurmountable problems of
the Wenhu line indicate the need for a comprehensive review.
The Maokong Gondola cost NT$1.3 billion and is Taiwan¡¦s largest cable car
system. However, service was suspended after a little over a year of operations
when the foundation of one of the supporting pillars was found to be unstable.
Service has now been restored, though it has been suggested it is more to do
with the year-end mayoral elections than anything. Indeed, on the day operations
resumed, someone by the nickname ¡§ricky13¡¨ posted a video on the Internet
showing how service almost stopped twice on the way up, prompting him to take
the bus back down the mountain claiming he was too scared to take the cable car.
Other problems include the fact cars get stuffy when they move slowly, the
customer service center sells things but does not provide chairs for visitors
and the many cars and scooters that violate parking regulations at the various
stops. Residents in the neighborhood remain worried rain will once again cause
landslides and undermine the now reinforced foundation of the same pillar. The
city government, in its infatuation with big headline-grabbing projects, wants
the Maokong Gondola to shine as brightly as Hong Kong¡¦s Crystal Cabin cable car
and has made this the biggest selling point in calling for the resumption of
operations. Missing throughout the project has been a focus on safety before
anything else, which is especially strange given it is the public¡¦s No. 1
concern.
Even smaller projects in the city like the bicycle lane along Dunhua Road have
failed, in this instance because of dangerous traffic and conflict between
drivers and cyclists. In the end, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy) announced the
bicycle lane would no longer be reserved for the exclusive use of cyclists on
weekdays. How on earth will they explain all that wasted money?
These three projects alone have cost the public almost NT$70 billion, which only
goes to prove the saying that bad policymaking can be even worse than
corruption. Rarely have the last two Taipei mayors engaged in self-criticism,
and most government leaders, from national to local levels, have a tendency to
blithely ignore what is going on around them, something not even the Control
Yuan seems to be able to do anything about.
I can only reiterate my belief that in a culture where dissenting opinions are
largely ignored, bad policymakers are invariably worse than the corrupt.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of Taiwan Shin
Sheng Daily News.
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