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EDITORIAL: Ma needs
to show some backbone
A clear pattern has developed since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in
May 2008: When the political situation is positive, he is quick to jump up and
take the credit, but when the going gets tough or problems begin to surface, he
is just as quick to take cover and shirk his responsibilities.
That was the case in July at the height of the controversy surrounding the
allegations of corruption involving former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin
Yi-shih (林益世). In spite of Ma, who doubles as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
chairman, having entrusted Lin with several major posts in the party and his
administration, the president was quick to distance himself from Lin, claiming
that Lin’s appointment as KMT Policy Committee director had been made by former
party chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄).
This was also the case in August 2009 when Typhoon Morakot wreaked havoc in the
mountainous regions in southern Taiwan and a landslide wiped out then-Kaohsiung
County’s Siaolin Village (小林) and buried nearly 500 people. Ma, rather than
reflecting on his administration’s delayed rescue efforts, shamelessly shifted
the blame to the victims by commenting more than once that many problems could
have been avoided if people had been better prepared and evacuated earlier.
On Monday, Ma repeated this pattern in an interview with the Taipei-based UFO
radio network when he said the government should be more delicate when drafting
legislative measures and be more considerate of others when implementing policy.
Citing as an example the state-run Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) announcement in
April that it would increase electricity prices, Ma criticized the company for
implementing the hike during summer, adding that this would “naturally fuel
public grievances.”
It is unbelievable to see how the president can so easily shift blame onto
others. In case Ma needs a reminder, during the summer it was he who was telling
the public how necessary it was for electricity prices to increase and
reprimanding those who opposed the hike for not understanding economics.
Prior to Taipower’s announcement, the Ministry of Economic Affairs on April 1
had already announced that fuel prices would be increased by between 7 percent
and 11 percent, effective from April 2. In other words, the fuel and electricity
price hikes initiated by the government were the primary reason behind the
increase in the prices of consumer goods and inflationary expectations. Yet, the
president still brazenly shifts the blame to Taipower and ministry officials and
acts as if he played no role in adding to the public’s financial struggles.
Even if Taipower initially proposed raising electricity prices, the final
decision is in Ma’s hands, so to shift the blame onto the state firm is
despicable.
This recurring pattern of blame-shifting is especially disturbing because, more
often than not, lower-ranking government officials and agencies in the Ma
government are made to shoulder the responsibility for the disasters created by
their superiors.
This brings to mind the case of Yu Wen (余文), a Taipei City Government staffer
during Ma’s stint as mayor of Taipei, who, following Ma’s indictment in 2006 on
a charge of misusing his special mayoral allowance, was seen by many to have
been Ma’s fall guy. Yu served time for failing to keep Ma’s accounts in order.
In view of this behavior, unless the president begins showing some backbone and
accepts responsibility for his words and actions, it looks like more “Yu Wens”
will be needed to serve as scapegoats for higher-ranking officials, as the
public continues to suffer at the hands of Ma’s incompetence.
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