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Taiwan is in need of
real leadership
By Jerome Keating
Next year’s presidential election is drawing near and Taiwanese must do some
serious soul searching.
As they look back at the past four years under the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT)
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), basic questions must be asked: Is Taiwan better
off now than it was in 2008? Has the economy and overall status of the nation
improved significantly since Ma’s infamous “6-3-3” campaign pledge?
No president could have stepped into office with a better position and with
better support than Ma. Not only did he receive about 58 percent of the vote,
but also by disproportionate representation in the Legislative Yuan (the
pan-blue camp had only 54 percent of the vote), Ma was able to get an
unstoppable 76 percent majority of the seats.
With this majority, Ma should have achieved anything he wanted; he could have
established any desired progressive programs. What more could a president ask
for? This was the ticket for great achievement. Progress would be a walk in the
park for an average president; for a competent president, it would mean
fantastic strides for Taiwan.
So what happened? Instead of four years of wished for progress, Taiwan has had
four years of mediocre stagnation.
Look at the economy: The few rich are becoming richer while the poor are
becoming poorer. The entry-level salary for college graduates is less than it
was four years ago. The cost of housing has risen sharply; young couples find it
increasingly difficult to buy a home. Jobs? The only good jobs seem to be
overseas as Ma pushes a one-sided agenda of closeness to China and apparent
neglect of Taiwan. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is still
only a framework and it threatens to swamp Taiwan’s industries and agricultural
sectors. Taiwan is not better off than it was four years ago; it is in danger of
sinking in quicksand.
Then there are the disasters. If Ma is incompetent, Taiwan could have at least
hoped that he would have chosen competent people. That did not happen. Typhoon
Morakot was poorly handled. The US beef controversy revealed Ma’s school buddies
making promises that he could not keep. Ma had told the US it would have no
surprises from him, but it got a big surprise when he had to reject US beef.
US-Taiwan relations have suffered since.
Add to this the domestic problems of a decline in freedom of the press, Ma’s
condescending insults to Taiwan’s indigenous people, an embarrassed hiding of
the flag and the choosing of “dinosaur” and “green card” judges. Taiwan finds
itself with an incompetent president surrounded by incompetent toady staff. He
even lost his 76 percent majority in the Legislative Yuan because several KMT
legislators were found guilty of corruption.
To be sure, there have been plenty of photogenic pictures of Ma along with
high-sounding platitudes and grand promises, but progress? Not much.
Citizens should have learned from Ma’s eight years as mayor of Taipei. Photos
and platitudes were plentiful, as well as tell-tale disasters like the Maokong
Gondola, the botched extension of the MRT Brown Line, the Nanjing West Circle
failure and many others in a city that balanced its budget by welching on
responsible contributions to the National Health Insurance.
Will Ma’s choice for vice president, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), add anything to
Ma’s ticket? Ma had chosen Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) four years ago to add supposed
economic expertise; that never happened. Wu will be loyal, but he will add
nothing new.
Ma’s credibility was further called into question after he boasted that with his
flexible diplomacy, Taiwan was making progress in gaining international space,
particularly in its participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA). This
proved to be a sham when an internal WHO memo revealed that Taiwan had actually
been expressly demoted last year to “province of China.”
Why was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asleep at the wheel about this year-old
memo? One has the impression secretly the ministry knew its content, but hoped
it would not become public knowledge. When it did, Taiwan’s US and EU allies
protested this maltreatment much more vigorously than Ma’s health minister, who
ended his weak protest with an expression of gratitude for being granted
participation under this sham.
Ma’s increasing lack of credibility goes back as far as 2005, when he promised
that he would sell the KMT’s stolen state assets; this has yet to be fulfilled.
As for the few that were sold, the KMT still kept the money instead of returning
it to the people.
In 2005, Ma also promised he would secure arms sales to defend Taiwan, but in
the following three years, the KMT used their majority in the Legislative Yuan
to block arms bills more than 60 times. In the following four years of Ma’s
presidency, there still has been no progress. The Hong Kong-born Ma’s desire to
protect Taiwan appears to be another sham.
Finally, Ma’s thinking is last century. He has come up with no new ideas. He
relies on the so-called “1992 consensus” that even his own people admit was a
fabrication. He has tried to return Taiwan’s negotiations with China to the
KMT’s party-to-party dealings with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of the
previous century.
Despite having every advantage when entering office, Ma has squandered Taiwan’s
opportunities. Never has so much promise produced so few results.
Ma’s leadership is constantly reactive and not pro-active. With incompetent
staff, his government is constantly putting out fires.
Bottom line: Taiwan needs new thinking. It needs to look to the next generation,
the next step forward, new leadership and a new and committed Taiwan-centric
focus.
Taiwan has had four years of mediocre stagnation under Ma, so is Taiwan better
off than it was four years ago? Not by a long shot; Taiwan cannot afford four
more years of the same.
Jerome Keating is a political commentator in Taipei.
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