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Editorial: Ma’s
policies a threat to stability
Retired civil servants’ year-end bonuses, which cost taxpayers more than NT$20
billion (US$684.7 million) annually without legislative oversight or an
executive order, and which were not revealed to the public until recently, are
obviously unfair to ordinary citizens. More than that, the issue poses concerns
and potential threats to society. While it does not sound correct that retired
civil servants receive a year-end bonus while many other full-time workers do
not, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration has insisted that the
benefits be retained because they have been a “customary practice” for many
years.
Meanwhile, more than 9 million workers recently found out that the Labor Pension
Fund is headed for bankruptcy in 2027 and the administrative branch, which
violated a legislative resolution in 2008 demanding that the government allocate
budgets for hidden losses incurred through poor investments, has also rejected a
Council of Labor Affairs request for a bill to legislate for a budget
allocation.
Subsequently, the government allocated budgets to the pension funds of military
personnel, civil servants and farmers, all of which are facing similar financial
threats as the Labor Pension Fund.
These cases are not the whole story, but merely form part of a series of
policies that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has implemented since taking office
in 2008, claiming they are “necessary reforms” and “the right things to do.”
Also included are the supplementary premium mechanism of the second-generation
National Health Insurance program, which charges a premium on income of more
than NT$5,000 from part-time work or stock dividends, but which is capped at
NT$200,000 to protect the rich, and the subsidy of NT$2.41 million per household
for reconstruction projects in military dependents’ villages, at a time when
young people are struggling to make ends meet and a tiny apartment in Taipei
commands a seven-figure price.
There was also the reduction in inheritance tax and business tax in 2009, which
aimed to attract foreign investment and entice China-based Taiwanese businesses
to return to Taiwan, as well as the fuel and electricity price increases this
year that sparked a rise in retail prices and further burdened householders.
This chronicle of Ma’s policies and “reforms” explains why his approval rating
has dropped to as low as 13 percent and why both the president and the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) have been accused of being “pro-corporate” and robbing
the poor to help the rich.
Laying the blame on the Ma administration is one thing, but the reasons behind
these ill-advised policies are a more serious concern.
These policies have failed to address issues of fairness and social justice,
with their different standards and treatments of those with different vocations,
incomes and backgrounds. This could cause deep class and social conflict. It has
the potential to deal a huge blow to a society which has been polarized due to
the different political ideologies of the pan-green and pan-blue camps.
Political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) said recently that one of the biggest
problems with the Ma administration is that it has always “picked the wrong
knowledge” due to its ignorance.
The question we should ask is whether Ma formulated these failed and unpopular
policies out of ignorance and carelessness, as it does not seem that way when he
makes the same mistakes over and over again.
Ma seems to have acted in a calculated and determined way, knowing that his
administration could not be challenged due to the KMT’s majority in the
legislature and the passiveness and vulnerability of ordinary Taiwanese.
Taiwanese should worry about Ma’s ignorance, but it is his insistence on
carrying out policies that jeopardize social harmony and threaten stability that
should worry them most.
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