Oversights in Premier Chiang's Twenty-Five Points

Oversights in Premier Chiang's Twenty-Five Points
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China)
A Translation
March 14, 2014

Summary: Premier Chiang Yi-hua recently spoke to cabinet ministers. He made 25 major and minor demands. The demands were unimagineably trivial. The premier ordered cabinet ministers to carry out a large number of complicated tasks. Critics considered this inappropriate. They mocked him, saying "The premier is acting like a drill instructor, and putting cabinet ministers through boot camp." More importantly, consider the dignity of those in authority. The premier's action demeans the cabinet ministers. It also blurs the long range vision required for the nation's governance.

Full text below:

Premier Chiang Yi-hua recently spoke to cabinet ministers. He made 25 major and minor demands. The demands were unimagineably trivial. The premier ordered cabinet ministers to carry out a large number of complicated tasks. Critics considered this inappropriate. They mocked him, saying "The premier is acting like a drill instructor, and putting cabinet ministers through boot camp." More importantly, consider the dignity of those in authority. The premier's action demeans the cabinet ministers. It also blurs the long range vision required for the nation's governance.

Taiwan faces intractable problems. What sort of responses are required? Salaries on Taiwan have remain frozen. Ten years ago, the high-tech and OEM industries relocated or were eclipsed by the Koreans. Industrial upgrading has remained an empty promise. Society is anxious. Take the individual. The gap between rich and poor has widened. Young people have no hope. They have no future. Postgraduate study cannot guarantee employment. Take Taiwan as a whole. The government lacks sufficient tax revenue. Public works are at a standstill. EIAs are drawn out and inefficient. Blue vs. Green ideological opposition remains a Gordian knot. Taiwan still enjoys a few advantages, but they are rapidly being frittered away. This is the situation on Taiwan. To change it we need leaders with the courage to throw open the doors.

The environment Taiwan confronts is far from ideal. But take recent history. Both many outstanding political leaders abroad have led their people out of predicaments far worse than ours. They have blazed new trails. Brazil's 36th president is Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Thirty years ago, Taiwan's Sun Yun-suan was also an excellent example. So is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Leave aside his controversial nationalist policies. He successfully turned Japanese morale around. He had the will to fight.

Look at these leaders. The common denominator is high energy. They know how to clarify the situation, identify the problem, uncover strategies, win public support, and turn things around. Political conditions in Brazil and Japan are worse than they are on Taiwan. Cardoso and Abe would never obsess over how to communicate with members of parliament, over how long it took to return a phone call, over when to consult a PR firm, or over whether to first report to the executive. Put more harshly, if politicians obsess over such trivialities, it is sure to thrwart the realization of their vision.

Meanwhile, the relationship between the premier and cabinet ministers are relative. Does the premier intend to demand strict accountability from cabinet members on all manner of trivia? Does he intend to treat them the way a primary school teacher treats his students? If he does, the result will not difficult to imagine. What caliber of people is willing to tolerate this kind of leadership? The result would be an exodus of the most talented individuals. Premier Chiang does not want cabinet members to make policy behind closed doors. He is right about this. But let us back up. Who recruited the cabinet members who formulate policy behind closed doors to begin with? No large company on Taiwan is going to tolerate anyone above a vice president who formulates policy behind closed doors. Must 30 or more cabinet members follow the premier around and whisper in his ear?

Before Premier Chiang promotes a major policy, he is going to need the support of the president and the various cabinet ministers. This is true enough. But the public on Taiwan has to wonder. The President and the Premier promoted such absurd policies as 12 year compulsory education. They promoted an isolated case which led to the repeal of courts martials. They issued foolhardy hikes in gasoline prices and electricity rates. They promoted a stillborn capital gains tax unique in all the world. Were any of these moves supported by the public on Taiwan? Have the policy leaders who operated behind closed doors learned their lesson? Suppose these cases, which cabinet members were warned about, turn out to be the fault of the president and the premier? Just how effective was this cabinet member boot camp?

Ma administration governance remains troubled even after five years and ten months in office. It is understandably anxious. Everyone knows this. But no matter how anxious it might be, it must not panic and lose its composure. The Chiang 25 Points may represent the conclusions of the abortive Ma Chiang review. But can they really attribute the errors to cabinet officials speaking out of turn, or poor communications, or poor policies? Can they then demand strict discipline? First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. This sort of finger pointing will hardly remedy the problem.

Can Ma and Chiang enage in self-introspection? Can they take a long, hard look at their own managerial approach, their own vision, their own decision-making style, and their own policy direction? If so, the conclusions they reach will be dramatically different. We would like to remind President Ma and Premier Chiang. Blaming others upon encountering setbacks is easy. Contemplating one's own responsibility on the other hand, is hard. As a Western saying puts it, "Most men think they are a good drivers. But few men know where they are going." Nitpicking over cabinet discipline may help the cabinet march in lockstep. But it will not help it find a way out of its current predicament. It may even limit the creativity of its political appointees.

格局與器識：「江廿五點」遺漏的事
【聯合報╱社論】
2014.03.14 03:57 am

行政院長江宜樺日前在內閣閣員的集訓講話中，提出大大小小的廿五點要求，內容瑣細到難以想像。閣揆把內閣大臣找來吩咐這麼多繁雜瑣事，輿論皆以為不妥，譏為「閣揆做教官、閣員上軍訓」。更重要的是，從治國的高度看，閣揆此舉不僅貶低了閣員的格局，也模糊了當前國家治理與政府決策所需要的遠大瞻矚。

先談台灣當前面對什麼樣的難題、需要什麼樣的改變。台灣社會的平均薪資凍漲已久，十幾年前的高科技產業或者代工外移、或者被韓國超越，產業升級徒託空言，整個社會焦躁不安。就個人而言，社會上貧富差距日益擴大，年輕人對未來沒有熱情、沒有憧憬，讀書深造也不保證有就業前景。就整體台灣而言，國家租稅收入不足，公共建設幾近停擺，環評冗長而無效率，藍綠意識形態糾結難解。台灣當下還有一些所剩不多的優勢，但是這些優勢也正在快速流失。這是當前台灣面對的處境，而要改變這樣的氛圍，我們需要的是大開大闔的領導人。

台灣今天面對的大環境雖然不理想，但觀諸近代歷史，國內外均仍有不少優秀的政治領袖能帶領其人民突破比台灣今天更惡劣的困境，開創新局。巴西第卅六任總統卡多索、台灣卅年前的孫運璿，都是極佳的典範。包括日本首相安倍晉三，若不去深究其政策所涉的國族主義爭議，他也成功將日本的民心士氣從低谷翻轉，有奮勇突破的氣勢。

綜觀這些領導者，他們的共通點是能居高布局，包括釐清當前局面、看準問題癥結，找尋切入策略，喚起民眾認同，設法扭轉局勢等。巴西與日本的政治環境絕對不比台灣單純，但是，卡多索與安倍絕不會把全副重點擺在如何與國會議員溝通、多久要回覆議員電話、什麼時候要找公關公司、政策形成要先向長官報告等等。?得嚴重些，政治人物若是將領導統御的重點豆丁化、瑣碎化，那就注定侷限了其格局與發展。

另一方面，閣揆與閣員的關係當然也是相對的。如果閣揆對閣員的言行枝節嚴予課責，如同老師對小學生那樣耳提面命，大家也不難想像「什麼樣的人願意在如此的領導氣氛下擔任閣員」，其結果必然是反淘汰。江揆要求閣員政策形成不要閉門造車，這話固然沒錯，但是請返其始，這些會閉門造車的閣員又是誰找來的？台灣任何大公司都不可能找閉門造車的人出任副總以上職位，為什麼三十幾位堂堂部會首長，卻要勞煩行政院長在耳邊叮嚀？

江揆要求各部會推動重大政策前要先取得總統與閣揆的支持，這話也沒錯；但台灣人民也不禁要問：總統與院長以往所推動的一拖拉庫荒誕政策（諸如眾人皆曰不宜的十二年國教、由單一個案延伸到軍法審判的廢除、有勇無謀的油電雙漲、舉世無雙即推即廢的證所稅），有沒有得到台灣人民的支持？而那些閉門造車的政策領導人，有沒有得到什麼教訓？如果大人們告誡閣員的種種事例，竟然是總統與院長常犯的錯誤，請問這堂內閣軍訓課的功能究竟在哪裡？

馬政府過去五年十個月施政不順，因而心中焦慮，大家可以理解。然而，再怎麼著急，也不能亂了方寸，慌了手腳。「江廿五點」或許代表馬江檢討挫敗的結論，但把錯誤歸咎於閣員的談話不當、溝通不良、政策不佳，所以要求嚴格的紀律，這恐怕是「見秋毫而不見輿薪」的反省，對於扭轉局勢恐是於事無補。

馬江若能夠反求諸己，多在自己用人、視野、決策風格、施政方向上做檢討，其所能得到的結論與見解，應該會大大不同。我們要提醒馬總統與江院長：在挫敗中檢討別人容易，反省自己困難。西諺有云：「絕大多數男士都認為自己是個好駕駛，但很少人知道自己所駛之方向是否正確。」瑣細的閣員紀律，或許可以讓內閣步伐一致，但是卻絕難找到走出當前困局的方向，更可能侷限了政務官的開創能力。