On Sept. 23, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said, "The Ministry of Finance is trying to destroy the farmers' and fishermen's associations by having commercial banks take over their credit units. If it acts recklessly on policy affecting the farmers' and fishermen's associations, the DPP will have to be careful of losing power." Presi-dent Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) responded by saying that "reform will continue even if it risks costing us power."
Chen's statement was inspiring and people from all walks of life sought to generate ideas on how the NT$1.05 trillion Financial Restructuring Fund should be used. Eventually, however, under pressure from a series of planned marches and protests by farmers and fishermen, the government decided to suspend the implementation of risk-management measures aimed at regulating the associations' credit units. That decision has brought a halt to the financial reform of the units.
In 1996, non-performing loans (NPL) extended by farmers' and fishermen's credit units totaled NT$72.3 billion. After six years, this has increased to NT$137 billion as of June this year. The NPL ratio was 8.57 percent in 1996, as opposed to 21.53 percent in June this year.
We will come to regret postponing grassroots financial reform if no action is taken soon.
The problem of financial reform was caused by the KMT administration's laissez-faire approach and procrastination, which it found beneficial in controlling local party factions.
The administration's decision to suspend the implementation of risk-management measures has halted some reforms that had already been set in motion.
The difficulty of grassroots financial reform lies in the complex ties between the farmers' and fishermen's associations and political factions, not from the implementation of financial measures. We believe that it is impossible to reform every aspect of the system; trying to make everyone happy will result in hypocrisy. We can only try our best to allay the opposition of vested interests. In the face of opposition from the "targeted groups," we should neither hesitate nor flinch from our mission.
Grassroots financial reform is irrelevant to politics. The grass-roots financial institutions are a timebomb that could trigger a financial crisis at any time. Their senior officials do not belong to any particular party or faction; they care only about pursuing their own interests.
In 2000, the people's disappointment with KMT reforms led to a change in government. Today, that same sense of disappointment has re-emerged. It is obvious that simple, vigorous reform does not necessarily result in loss of power. But the administration certainly risks losing power by advocating reform and then caving in to anti-reform protests.
Since the 2000 election, we, as founding members of the DPP, have felt increasingly powerless about the party's apparent abandonment of its past ideals and resolve.
Hong Chi-chang and Tuan Yi-kang are DPP legislators.
Translated by Grace Shaw
A nation has several pillars of national defense, among them are military strength, energy and food security, and national unity. Military strength is very much on the forefront of the debate, while several recent editorials have dealt with energy security. National unity and a sense of shared purpose — especially while a powerful, hostile state is becoming increasingly menacing — are problematic, and would continue to be until the nation’s schizophrenia is properly managed. The controversy over the past few days over former navy lieutenant commander Lu Li-shih’s (呂禮詩) usage of the term “our China” during an interview about his attendance
Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), the son of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo member and former Chongqing Municipal Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來), used his British passport to make a low-key entry into Taiwan on a flight originating in Canada. He is set to marry the granddaughter of former political heavyweight Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政), the founder of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東). Bo Xilai is a former high-ranking CCP official who was once a challenger to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the chairmanship of the CCP. That makes Bo Guagua a bona fide “third-generation red”
US president-elect Donald Trump earlier this year accused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) of “stealing” the US chip business. He did so to have a favorable bargaining chip in negotiations with Taiwan. During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump demanded that European allies increase their military budgets — especially Germany, where US troops are stationed — and that Japan and South Korea share more of the costs for stationing US troops in their countries. He demanded that rich countries not simply enjoy the “protection” the US has provided since the end of World War II, while being stingy with
Historically, in Taiwan, and in present-day China, many people advocate the idea of a “great Chinese nation.” It is not worth arguing with extremists to say that the so-called “great Chinese nation” is a fabricated political myth rather than an academic term. Rather, they should read the following excerpt from Chinese writer Lin Yutang’s (林語堂) book My Country and My People: “It is also inevitable that I should offend many writers about China, especially my own countrymen and great patriots. These great patriots — I have nothing to do with them, for their god is not my god, and their patriotism is