Fatal Haste: One Reason Taiwan Has Not Progressed

Fatal Haste: One Reason Taiwan Has Not Progressed
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
September 23, 2014 

Summary: Hasty, careless, imprecise, non-standardized approaches to doing things are fatal for any society that hopes to progress. As long as this sort of "good enough for government work" mindset prevails, the rule of law will remain difficult to implement, and progress will be impossible. The rancid oil scandal was a repeat performance. It abruptly took Taiwan back 30 years, to the "knock-off kingdom" era. Taiwan society has discovered that many officials and citizens are still living in the past. They are puffed up with haughty complacency They boast that they live in an advanced nation. Astounding, no? This Taiwan disease has no political coloration. So who among the ruling and opposition parties has a remedy?

Full Text Below: 

Taiwan's economic growth has slowed. Blue vs. green political opposition persists, undiminished. The economy is being strangled and politics provoke disgust. These are two barriers to the nation's progress. Yet recent events prove that private enterprise and government agencies lack seriousness. This is in fact a serious problem that prevents Taiwan society from moving forward.

Let us begin with something people feel strongly about. The Taoyuan landscape art festival exhibited a large "moon rabbit." When workers dismantled it with the conclusion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Sparks from an overheated truck engine caused a fire. The grassy field and the moon rabbit were consumed by flames. The moon rabbit was a work by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. His previous work, a yellow duckling, was exhibited in Taoyuan last year. But a power failure caused it to deflate. This was followed by overinflation which caused it to burst. When exhibited in Keelung, air pollution turned it into a "black duckling." This was followed by the improper use of cleaning agents, which weakened the rubber seams and caused it to explode. Hofman is unlikely to forget the ordeal his pieces have undergone while on Taiwan.

The yellow duckling exploded, twice, due to sloppiness on the part of those in charge and staff members. They failed to anticipate external variables. Could power failures and air pollution really not have been anticipated? Taiwan companies were granted the opportunity to participate in the manufacture of of the yellow duckling. They beamed with pride. But when sewing such a large piece, did they bother to take into account the strength of the seams? When they cleaned the duckling, did it never occurred to them that this might weaken the stitching at the seams? This is typical of the "stop-gap measure" mindset. Even more absurdly, when dismantling the moon rabbit, contractors touched off a conflagration. The county government and exhibitors then had the chutzpah to claim that "They were scheduled for demolition anyway." Apparently no one is to be held to account for this careless accident. Apparently it did not matter that a work of art was destroyed in such a farcical manner.

Coincidentally, the day before the Taoyuan moon rabbit became a "Burning Rabbit," a  gas explosion rocked the Kaohsiung MRT project. This was the same place where two months ago a ruptured petrochemical pipe led to a benzene gas leak. This time on site personnel clearly smelled the odor of gas. Yet construction units required workers to wear gas masks and re-enter the tunnel to work, promptly triggering a gas explosion. Thirty-two people died in the Kaohsiung gas explosion. People were just recovering from the disaster. Yet the Kaohsiung MRT resumed work in such a slapdash manner. Did anyone learn a lesson from the experience? This city bills itself as a "human rights city." But does it place any value on the lives of its construction workers?

The Taoyuan and Kaohsiung city governments can of course lay all the blame on contractor neglect. But these works involve construction specifications, working conditions, as well as public safety. The government must require manufacturers to comply with contract specifications and supervise construction. If it allows them to compromise standards, if it abets shoddy construction methods or substandard materials, how can the public feel safe? How can Taiwan ensure product quality?

Following the Kaohsiung MRT gas explosion, construction units installed a large number of fans. They attempted to disperse the gas from the site by blowing air. Firefighters attempted dilute the benzene by spraying it with water. But as everyone knows, benzene is insoluble in water. We can now see just how primitive public safety is in the modern city of Kaohsiung. Information Technology long ago entered the cloud computing era. Yet the Kaohsiung City Government could not produce a complete and accurate map of its petrochemical pipelines and underground drainage culverts. Clearly Taiwan, a purported "IT Giant," is still quite a few evolutionary steps behind the times. More than 50 days later, the bodies of two firefighters were finally recovered. In fact, the "phantom" box culvert outlet was not that far away. Apparently the Kaohsiung City Government never bothered to conduct a serious and systematic search. They later trotted out some tale of "phantom" culverts to evade blame. This is truly a mark of shame for modern Taiwan.

The rancid oil scandal has shown us that the problem is callous indifference on the part of private enterprise and government agencies alike. It is one thing for Kuo Lie-cheng to process rancid oil in his underground processing plants. But when the Chang Guann Company, capitalized in the hundreds of millions, purchases oil from him, that is something else altogether. Chang Guann mixed this oil in with others and sold it to food manufacturers across the nation. How many complaints has the Pingtung County Government been barraged with over the past four years? Environmental protection, health, and agriculture officials politely went through the motions, turning a blind eye to what was going on, again and again. Human lives were at stake. Yet bureaucrats thought nothing of it. And county residents apparently still have complete faith in such a county governmenty.

These are all examples of hasty, careless, imprecise, non-standardized approaches to doing things. They are fatal for any society that hopes to progress. As long as this sort of "good enough for government work" mindset prevails, the rule of law will remain difficult to implement, and progress will be impossible. The rancid oil scandal was a repeat performance. It abruptly took Taiwan back 30 years, to the "knock-off kingdom" era. Back then Taiwan lacked resources and knowledge. Chasing after appearances was enough. But 30 years later, after so much progress, Taiwan society has discovered that many officials and citizens are still living in the past. They are puffed up with haughty complacency They boast that they live in an advanced nation. Astounding, no? This Taiwan disease has no political coloration. So who among the ruling and opposition parties has a remedy?

致命的草率：台灣無法進步的一大癥結
【聯合報╱社論】
2014.09.23 02:02 am

台灣近年經濟成長遲滯，藍綠對立始終無法舒緩，「悶經濟」加上「悶政治」，對國家發展構成了雙重阻障。但綜觀最近的一連串事件，人們可以發現，民間企業和行政體系中「認真」精神的失落，其實也是嚴重羈絆台灣社會前進的一大癥結。

先從令人感受最深刻的例子談起。桃園地景藝術節展出的大月兔，在中秋過後雇工拆除時，竟因施工卡車引擎過熱致火花掉落起火，將現場草坪連同月兔一起燒毀。這隻月兔是荷蘭藝術家霍夫曼的作品，他的前一作品黃小鴨去年在桃園展出時，曾因跳電「消風」而扁掉，又因充氣過度而爆裂；在基隆展出時，則因空氣汙染變成「黑小鴨」，隨即又因清潔劑使用不當傷及膠皮縫線而爆掉。對於其作品在台灣如此多災多難的遭遇，霍夫曼恐怕很難忘吧？

黃小鴨兩度爆裂，都是由於主事者和工作人員態度草率，對於外在變數缺乏估計所致；否則，跳電和空氣汙染豈是無法防範的因素？再者，台灣業者以有幸參與黃小鴨的製作而感自豪，但縫製如此大型的作品是否考慮到牢固性的加強？包括在清洗小鴨時，卻沒想到這同時破壞了其結構縫線，正是典型「頭痛醫頭、腳痛醫腳」的單向思維作風。更荒唐的是，受雇拆除月兔的包工以火燒的意外收場，縣府和策展單位竟以「本來就要銷毀」一語隨口帶過，彷彿這種粗疏肇事沒有人需要負責，一件作品如此毀棄也毫不足惜。

無獨有偶，在桃園月兔變成「火燒兔」的前一日，高雄衛武營的捷運工程發生了氣爆意外。這個地點兩個月前即曾挖破石化管，導致苯氣外洩；這次施工時，現場人員分明聞到了濃濃的異味氣體，工程單位仍要求工人戴著防毒面具進入地道工作，隨即引發氣爆。試想，在導致卅二死的高雄氣爆重創未癒之際，高捷如此草率的施工表現，有任何記取教訓的態度嗎？這個號稱「人權城市」的都會，有把工人的性命當一回事嗎？

當然，桃園和高雄市府都可以把責任推給施作「包工」的不慎；但是，任何工程的進行均涉及施工規範、勞動條件乃至公共安全，如果政府不確實要求承包廠商遵守規範，不透過有效的機制監督其施工品質，卻放任他們在標準線上下混水摸魚，縱容他們「土法煉鋼」對承包工程偷工減料或上下其手，民眾的安全怎麼會有保障？台灣的產品品質怎麼會有保證？

在高捷工程氣爆後，施工單位在現場架設了多支電扇，企圖以「風吹」的方式驅散現場的異味，還有消防人員試圖以「水澆」的方式稀釋土壤中的苯氣，殊不知苯不溶於水。從這個景象，即可看出，作為現代都會的高雄，在安全治理上處於多麼原始的狀態。當資訊科技早已進入「雲端」，而高雄地下石化管線和排水箱涵卻拿不出準確而完整的地圖；可見，號稱「資訊大國」的台灣，其實有很大一部分跟不上時代的進化腳步。也因此，歷經五十多日方才尋獲的兩名消防弟兄之遺體，其實就在幽靈箱涵出口不遠處，可見先前根本未曾有系統地認真搜尋，事後卻還要拿一些「靈異」故事來襯托，這真是現代台灣的恥辱標記。

在餿水油事件中，我們看到的，正是民間廠商和政府部門合作演出的粗疏草率。郭烈成在地下工廠土法煉油也就罷了，資本額數億的強冠竟敢向他購油，在工廠中調混到一個程度，就賣給全國食品廠。而屏東縣府四年來接獲多少次的檢舉，環保、衛生、農業官員先後登門檢查行禮如儀，卻視而不見，一次次放過。人命關天，官僚卻毫不放在心中，而縣民似乎對這樣的縣府似仍深信不疑。

上述種種草率、粗疏、不精確、無規範的態度，對任何社會的發展都是會致命的病因；只要「隨便主義」存在，法治即難以落實，進步便不可能實現。餿水油事件再現，讓台灣一下子倒回卅年前「仿冒王國」的時代；但那個年代的台灣是因為資源及知識不足，只能以追求外表的神似為已足。而經過卅年的發展之後，台灣社會居然有這麼多官員和人民的自我要求還停留在那個狀態，並驕矜自滿，以先進國家自居，這豈不令人驚駭！這種跨藍綠的台灣病，朝野誰有解方？