A national leader should make stability rather than swiftness the government’s top priority, as any decision can be crucial to the public’s lives and livelihood or even the fate of the nation.
He or she must act with caution as there is no room for mistakes.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government has stumbled repeatedly since it came to power more than a month ago. Yet surprisingly, it is speeding up its highly sensitive cross-strait measures by opening direct links with total disregard to national security. Will officials only stop and reflect if the public rebels against them?
After negotiations between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) last month, both sides agreed to open eight Taiwanese and five Chinese airports to direct charter flights. While this will partly fulfill Ma’s campaign promise, the government has rashly inked an agreement — without professional evaluation or adequate complementary measures — with a country that has shown no sign of renouncing the use of force against Taiwan. Not surprisingly, many observers have expressed concern.
As Ma said in his inaugural speech: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Yet he is guilty of refusing to listen to sound but unpleasant advice. After the cross-strait talks, he immediately suggested that SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) recommend shortening flight routes across the Taiwan Strait.
Dictatorial decisions like this are turning public discontent into a pressure cooker and if it boils over it could endanger Ma’s administration.
Regarding the selection of airports for direct flights, former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) government designated Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport for direct flights. This not only emphasized the state-to-state nature of the flights, but also took into account that these airports were properly equipped and large enough to offer high-quality service.
In addition, these decisions were made with expert advice from the military and thus took national security into consideration. Yet Ma’s government is rashly adding six other airports.
In particular, adding Hualien and Taitung airports puts the nation in a dangerous situation. Hualien and Taitung are particularly significant for protecting combat capabilities in wartime and therefore should not be open to the flights.
Vice Minister of National Defense Lin Chen-yi (林鎮夷) said recently that China is the nation’s greatest enemy and that in terms of direct cross-strait flights, the Ministry of National Defense’s first priority is national security.
While the government plans to open eight airports to direct flights, the ministry has prioritized the preparations at Taoyuan and Kaohsiung international airports. The number of troops stationed at all of these airports must be increased and preparation work at the six other airports remains inadequate.
Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏), who has an air force background, is against opening Hualien and Taitung airports to cross-strait flights, but Ma’s decision outweighed their protests.
As for Ma’s proposal to shorten the cross-strait flight routes, the Civil Aeronautics Administration has negotiated the issue with the Air Force, but the military objects to any suggestion that would shorten the military’s advance warning for threats in the Taiwan Strait to less than 10 minutes as this is not enough time to intercept enemy planes.
The Air Force is even against flights from Fujian Province to Kinmen and Matsu, which indicates that these proposals are problematic.
Unfortunately, incompetent politicians have ignored expert opinion. No wonder some military leaders are saying in private that Taiwan might as well surrender right now.
On the one hand, Ma’s government has opened the doors to China by allowing direct flights to and from eight airports. On the other hand, reports say that Ma sent a representative to talk to Washington in the hope of halting the nation’s arms procurements to avoid upsetting Beijing at this juncture. After the Defense News broke this story, the Presidential Office offered an ambiguous and suspect response.
Ma has already asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to avoid references to Taiwanese sovereignty. By discontinuing arms purchases, he is effectively taking away national defense. Additionally, his direct flight plans will leave no part of air defense intact.
The question is whether Ma doesn’t already see himself as the “chief executive” of “Taiwan, China” and whether he, the president of the Republic of China, is guilty of treason only one month into his term.
Both the pro-Chinese character of the political and economic issues discussed in the recent cross-strait talks and the government’s alleged request that the US temporarily halt arms sales to Taiwan are serious matters that could constitute treason. The legislature should demand that the Presidential Office, the National Security Council, the Mainland Affairs Council and the SEF report to the legislature and explain the situation to the public. Legislators should otherwise refuse to review the budgets for agencies that are neglecting their responsibilities.
Such a muddleheaded and careless government should step down.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG AND ANGELA HONG
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