|
Ma’s blatant lies
about fuel prices
By Lin Cho-shui 林濁水
Lately, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been criticized if fuel prices go up,
and if they go down. As Ma explains it, he was right when he decided to hike the
prices and he was also right to subsequently cut them, so he feels he really
does not deserve the criticism.
People who want to stand up for Ma say the price changes were necessary because
of fluctuations in international oil prices. They say that while Ma may be a bit
more stupid and a bit more incompetent than other leaders, he is honest, and so
should not be criticized too harshly.
Is this really how things are? Ma has indeed been criticized because of his
incompetence, but it is also because he comes up with a lot of lofty and
grandiloquent explanations for raising prices, and when he then cuts them, he is
again absolutely convinced that he is right.
This is a cheap play for popularity. Let us examine the bombastic and pompous
statements Ma and his team have used over the past four years.
When elected in 2008, Ma immediately announced an increase in fuel prices, while
also strongly criticizing former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁)
administration, saying it had manipulated fuel prices for electoral purposes.
Ma’s administration managed to say this with a straight face. Then, before the
five special municipality elections and from December 2010 up to this year’s
presidential election, the Ma administration turned around and cut fuel price
increases in half. Ma’s government presented a magnificent reason for doing
this: It said it was because it empathized with the people and that it had
nothing to do with the upcoming elections. It was impressive to see how the
administration pulled it all off — all costs were absorbed by CPC Corp, Taiwan
(CPC).
After Ma won the election and secured the presidency for another four years, he
turned around and said that fuel prices would once again have to be determined
by the market, calling it “reform” and saying that reform hurts.
He said that if consumers did not take that hit now, it would hurt even more in
the future and also said it was unfair to use taxpayer money to subsidize fuel
prices. What a sweet guy. Then Premier Sean Chen said that Taiwan’s 95-octane
unleaded gasoline was some of the cheapest in the world. Two days after his
re-inauguration, Ma said international fuel prices had increased for 15 months
in a row.
They said all these things as if the price increases were the most natural thing
in the world, and totally devoid of controversy.
When international fuel prices kept dropping, CPC had to drop their prices 10
times. This caused the public to question the government’s skill in predicting
fuel prices. Ma said that trends in petroleum prices had also fooled many
international experts, which shows how difficult they are to predict. There were
still lots of justifications, though, and Ma said he was not responsible for the
poor predictions and the initial decision to adjust prices in one big increase.
Ma and his administration cited the price estimates made by Merrill Lynch and
Goldman Sachs in March and April.
So after so many international experts began predicting that fuel prices would
drop, why did the Ma government not listen? Why did the government first say it
would implement a large, one-time increase in fuel prices to reflect the market,
but then, when international oil prices fell, decide to cut prices by less than
the amount that international prices had dropped?
In the end, CPC chairman Chu Shao-hua (朱少華) had to call a press conference and
admit that the price hikes were intended to make up for the losses incurred when
prices were frozen and that they had nothing to do with the increase in
international fuel prices.
In spite of this contradicting everything the government had said up until that
point, the government still feels it did the right thing — it had to save CPC
from going bankrupt, and what could be more righteous than that? It is a huge
sin when others freeze prices, but when the Ma administration does the same
thing, it does so out of concern for the public. When the government decides to
unfreeze prices, it calls it a “great reform.” Then it says the following 10
consecutive price cuts are necessary because the original price increase was the
result of poor forecasts by international experts and that prices were cut by
less than the drop in international prices to save CPC from bankruptcy.
Political strategy has been involved in every bit of manipulation of fuel prices
and lies have been pouring out of the government’s mouth with the same ease with
which a Confucian scholar would recite Confucius (孔子) and Mencius (孟子).
Everything the government has said has been contradictory and it has shown no
fear of being caught out. Ma is not very competent, but he does want to retain
the presidency and to be liked by the public. Now that his lies have been
exposed, he maintains his sanctimonious attitude and refuses to apologize. Is it
any wonder that the government is receiving the criticism it is in a modern,
democratic society?
If we look back a few years, when former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said that
fuel prices should not be manipulated for political gain and that the government
should always do the right thing even if it means being criticized, we will see
that his views stand in stark contrast to what has been happening recently.
Now that Ma is on the receiving end of so much criticism, perhaps he should heed
those pearls of wisdom left behind by his much-loved and esteemed former
premier.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
Translated by Drew Cameron
|
