United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
August 23, 2016
Executive Summary: Take the president's four-year term. The first 100 days in office is merely the beginning. The coffin lid has yet to be sealed. The government's legacy has yet to be determined. But the first 100 days has been utter chaos. The President and the Premier's poll numbers have plummeted. The public is thoroughly disillusioned. Tsai Ing-wen must wonder how she can possibly stay the course. The DPP will be in power for four years. But the public has not been able to tolerate Tsai Ing-wen's policy path for even 100 days. What will Taiwan do for the next four years?
Full Text Below:
President Tsai has been in power for over three months, but the political atmosphere on Taiwan has not changed one iota. Bureaucratic arrogance persists. Domestic governance, foreign affairs, and national defense have all gone off the rails. Social antagonisms have intensified. Tsai Ing-wen wants to avoid being judged according to her first 100 days in office. We would warn her against allowing the tail to wag the dog. She must deal with this problem as soon as possible. Otherwise during the next 100 days public anger will boil over.
Actually, if one begins counting from January 16, when Tsai Ing-wen was elected, seven months or 200 days have already passed. In other words, Tsai's record has been far from satisfactory. She wasted her four months preparation period. Her administrative team was overconfident. Her cabinet's performance has been hit or miss. Her administration's strategic direction remains a huge question mark. It is overwhelmed. All it can do is put out fires. It cannot offer a new vision for Taiwan. How can people not be dismayed?
For the new government, the tail is wagging the dog. This phenomenon has manifested itself in two ways. Way Number One. The president is confused about her national priorities. She is having difficulty differentiating between what is important and what is not, what is primary and what is secondary. She is having difficulty establishing a convincing value system. Way Number Two. Tsai Ing-wen is attempting to differentiate herself from Chen Shui-bian. She is attempting to take a more rational, middle road. But she is finding it hard to hold her course when confronted by the DPP and various pressure groups. She has been constantly forced to compromise or cave in. Her repeated changes in direction, her constant course corrections, have gradually blurred her policy path.
Take the former. The President has a responsibility to lead the government in a direction that enables the nation to grow. The President must offer a vision able to inspire people. The new government has already been in office 100 days, yet it remains preoccupied with electioneering. It remains mired in its opposition party mindset, preoccupied with political spin doctoring, historical grievances, revenge seeking, political purges, or personnel reshufflings. Such a preoccupation with the past, prevents it from seeing the problems it faces now. How can it possibly offer a vision for the future?
Some of the reforms Tsai has proposed make sense. For example, pension reform has reached a point where it is a matter of extreme urgency. Judicial reform has been the focus of popular resentment. These reforms should be implemented. But the recovery of Kuomintang assets, the promotion of transitional justice, the rewriting of history texts, are merely cut-throat political battles. They are manifestations of political tyranny, because they trample over the rule of law, they lack legitimacy, and they incite social unrest.
The Tsai government has placed so much emphasis on reform, it is completely overlooking what most people care about, their livelihood. Taiwan's economy has shown no improvement for a very long time. But few hear any words of wisdom from President Tsai. Her Minister of Economic Affairs cares olnly about keeping up appearances on the President's "nuclear-free homeland" initiative. He has little time for anything else. The Minister of Finance has become the Invisible Man. On election night, Tsai swore that "The DPP will give priority to bills that the people are concerned about". But all anyone sees today, is the DPP's abuse of its majority in the Legislative Yuan to wage all out war. The bills it has passed have nothing to do with people's livelihood. Even more distressing, the government has no qualms whatsoever about importing US pork containing Clenbuterol or foodstuffs from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster zone. How are people supposed to feel about such betrayals by the DPP once it was in power?
Now consider the "tail wagging the dog" phenomenon. Tsai Ing-wen initially hoped to free herself from the constraints that bound Chen Shui-bian. She drew clearer boundaries between the party and the government. But the Tsai faction is having difficulty sticking to its path. The distribution of political pork has been met with challenges from within the party. The Lin Chuan cabinet's performance has been poor. This has given rival DPP factions a pretext to engage in extortion. During her election campaign, Tsai Ing-wen viewed pressure groups that attacked the Ma government as “partners”. She has rewarded them handsomely. In some cases, she has even spun their narrow agendas as mainstream values. She has ignored the fact that they are inapplicable to the nation as a whole, and may provoke a backlash. Such decisions have resulted in Tsai Ing-wen's loss of direction. Pandering to a tiny minority may pass for idealism. But it is utterly impractical. After all, a president is supposed lead a majority, and not be led by a minority. Such administrative practices violate the rule of law. They cannot win the approval of the public. They implicitly encourage people to take to the streets in protest. They can only provoke greater dissatisfaction, and make problems harder for the government to solve.
Take the president's four-year term. The first 100 days in office is merely the beginning. The coffin lid has yet to be sealed. The government's legacy has yet to be determined. But the first 100 days has been utter chaos. The President and the Premier's poll numbers have plummeted. The public is thoroughly disillusioned. Tsai Ing-wen must wonder how she can possibly stay the course. The DPP will be in power for four years. But the public has not been able to tolerate Tsai Ing-wen's policy path for even 100 days. What will Taiwan do for the next four years?
蔡英文要小心「尾巴搖狗」現象
2016-08-23 聯合報
蔡總統執政三個多月，並未給台灣帶來新的氣象，官僚顢頇依舊，內政、外交、國防脫軌事件頻傳，社會對立焦躁氣氛則隱隱發作。蔡英文希望外界不要僅以百日來評斷她執政的成敗，但我們也要提醒她：政府的「尾巴搖狗」現象若不能儘快消除，再下一個百日恐將民怨滔天。
說準確些，如果從一月十六日蔡英文當選時起算，迄今已超過七個月，計兩百多天。換言之，蔡政府今天的表現難如人意，和她在四個多月執政準備期的蹉跎有關，而這當然也和政府團隊的過度自信有關。如今，內閣表現離離落落，整個政府執政的方向和戰略不明，一再淪為消極的危機處理，終至無力為台灣形塑新的願景，能不讓人遺憾？
新政府的「尾巴搖狗」現象，表現在兩方面：在主觀面，是總統面對國政優先次序的混亂，重枝節而輕根本、重表象而輕制度，難以建立有說服力的價值信念。在客觀面，蔡英文原企圖走一條有別於陳水扁的中間理性路線，但面對民進黨及社運團體的掣肘似乎難以自持，不斷作出妥協或迎合。一再轉彎、修正的結果，路線特質和目標也逐漸消損、模糊。
先談前者。總統的責任，在帶領政府部門對國家發展作全方位的擘劃執行，並提出可堪想像的願景召喚人民前進。但新政府就位百日以來，似乎還未擺脫「競選」和「在野」心態，一心只想著政治上的扳回或扭轉，想著各項歷史問題的抹平或追剿，乃至於政策及人馬的更汰和重置。既充滿這類思維，所有心思即專注在計較「過去」，看不到「現在」的問題，遑論未來願景。
當然，蔡英文提出的某些改革主張是有意義的。例如，年金改革已到極其迫切的地步，司法改革則一直是人民怨懟所在，應該推動。然而，諸如追討國民黨黨產、推動轉型正義、修改課綱等作法，則落入了政治惡鬥和割喉之戰；甚至因為手段霸道，以政治踰越法制，而顯得正當性不足，卻攪得社會不寧。
問題在，蔡政府把改革議題打得虎虎生風，多數民眾關注的民生施政卻受到嚴重漠視。例如，台灣經濟久無起色，人們幾未聞蔡總統有何高見，而經濟部長展現的則似乎只是在幫總統的「非核家園」撐場面，別無關注，遑論財政部長幾已變成隱形人。在當選之夜，蔡英文承諾「民進黨會優先處理人民關心的法案」，但今天人們看到的，卻是民進黨濫用國會優勢擴大鬥爭，臨時會優先通過的法案均與民生無關。更讓人扼腕的是，連瘦肉精美豬、日本核區食品等食安事項，政府都輕易想要髮夾彎放水。如此本末倒置偏離主軸的施政，如何教人民有感？
再談第二種「尾巴搖狗」現象。蔡英文原企圖跳脫陳水扁的窠臼，在黨、政之間劃出更清楚的界線，但英派路線似乎難獨撐大局，隨即因執政大餅的利益分配受到黨內挑戰；而林全內閣表現不佳，更成為民進黨各派系指責及勒索的藉口。不僅如此，蔡英文把各色社運團體在她競選期間對馬政府的抗爭都視為「夥伴關係」，除大肆犒賞，甚至將這些特殊案例的主張當成主流價值宣揚，而不顧其適用之局限性，及可能引致的反挫力。這樣的選擇，也導致蔡英文的思路和作為每每走向偏鋒。一味迎合少數的作法，或可宣稱是在表達某些理想，但其反義就是不務實；畢竟，總統是要領導多數而不是被少數領導。就行政和法治而言，這不利爭取多數民眾的認同，且其間隱含鼓勵抗爭的意味只會誘發更多不滿，使政府窮於處理。
就總統的四年任期而言，百日執政只是起步，尚不足蓋棺論定。然而，看這百日的紛紛擾擾，總統和閣揆民調支持度的急墜，民眾不滿之聲四起，蔡英文不能不警惕她的路線將何以為繼。民眾對四年政黨輪替的期待若撐不過百日，台灣要怎麼辦？
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