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Ma is up to his neck
in beef stew
By Chin Heng-wei 金恒煒
The approach of Tropical Storm Talim last week had a political effect, which was
that a provisional session of the legislature could not be held and was instead
postponed until July 20. An interesting question to ask is who lost out from
Talim, and who gained from it?
Some people say that Talim helped President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) out of a tight
spot. Their reasoning is that if the provisional session had gone ahead at a
time when lawmakers belonging to Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were
unwilling to fight for him, then the only motion tabled for the session — a
proposed amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) that would
primarily affect imports of US beef — would not have passed. If that had
happened, Ma’s authority would have once again been badly dented. Now that the
meeting can no longer be held, Ma can avoid further humiliation and so,
according to this theory, the storm helped him out in a big way.
However, from another point of view, this is not the case. When the extended
legislative session came to an end, the US beef issue was still unresolved, so
Ma promptly convened a meeting of Cabinet, legislative and party officials and
ordered them to immediately hold a provisional legislative session to ensure
that the beef additive amendment would be passed. Evidently, Ma was hopping mad.
With the provisional session now postponed, Ma’s plan cannot go forward and his
calculations have all been messed up.
More importantly, the UN’s Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body set up to
protect the health of consumers and ensure fair international food trade
practices, will meet in Rome from Monday to Saturday next week. Information
currently in the hands of government departments suggests that the commission
may make a judgement unfavorable to the leanness-enhancing agent ractopamine. If
so, then it can be foreseen that by the time the extra legislative session is
held on July 20, KMT legislators will be even less willing to endorse Ma’s
position on the relaxation of imports of US beef containing the controversial
livestock feed additive.
As the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), it is of course the winner in this
situation. The DPP was against holding a provisional session to start with, so
its lawmakers are sure to be pleased now that the heavens have lent them a
helping hand. In addition, the Codex Alimentarius Commission looks set to give a
further boost to those who oppose amending the law. When that happens, even if
the KMT and its supporters in the media resort to their old tricks of distortion
and vilification, it will not do them any good.
Contrary to weather forecasters’ expectations, Tropical Storm Talim did not do
much damage to Taiwan, so it turned out to be something of a tempest in a
teacup. Talim created only one disaster area — the area around Ma himself.
As to the issue of ractopamine, is it not also a tempest in a teacup? All the
Cabinet needed to do was issue an executive order amending the Standards for
Veterinary Drug Residue Limits in Foods (動物用藥殘留標準) and it would have been
assured of resolving the problem. Why go to all the trouble of fighting it out
in the legislature?
Ma is the one who was determined to do it this way. In his view, his party’s
majority in the legislature was so secure it could even force through the Local
Government Act (地方制度法) two years ago, so why should the US beef issue be a
problem? As KMT Chairman, Ma thought that his party’s legislators would all take
the rap for him, just as his former secretary Yu Wen (余文) did over Ma’s special
allowance fund when he was Taipei mayor.
Ma, ever incompetent, obviously never thought that KMT legislators would group
together and rebel against him, but in the event, they left him to stew in his
own juice by telling him that he could repay his debt to the US by issuing an
executive order. Contrary to Ma’s expectations, his legislators could not be
relied upon to do his bidding this time. So, when the provisional session is
held on July 20, it will be as hard to get the amendment passed as it was last
time, if not harder.
The Ma administration chose not to use an executive order to begin with, but now
that it has run into a snag in the legislature, it may be compelled to do
precisely that. The legality of doing this is doubtful, not to mention its
fairness.
In sending its draft amendments on beef regulations to the legislature for
deliberation, the Cabinet acted in accordance with the Constitution, which
stipulates that the Cabinet should be accountable to the legislature and respect
the legislature’s right to participate in deciding policy with regard to
important national affairs.
Now, with the food sanitation law waiting to be amended in the legislature, the
Cabinet wants to circumvent the political body by acting on its own. Apart from
the disregard it shows for the legislature, the Cabinet’s approach could well be
unconstitutional.
Who would have thought that Ma would get himself into such a stew over something
as trivial as US beef? It just goes to show that in the world of politics you
can never be sure what is cooking.
Chin Heng-wei is a political commentator.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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