Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) recently announced that the merger of Tainan City and Tainan County had been postponed, but that the merger of Taichung and Kaohsiung counties and cities and the upgrade of Taipei County to a municipal city had been approved.
This seems to be an exciting political game, but it is as if lower-tier players in US professional baseball suddenly took up the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues, despite warnings from their coaches and managers about the risk to their reputation if they were completely outclassed.
While a player only has himself to blame for not being able to judge such a situation, managers can hardly be absolved over failing to perform their responsibilities.
Applying for a merger of a county and a city is a show put on by pan-blue and pan-green politicians. Instead of paying attention to the economy, living standards and other genuine problems, they are focusing on an unrealistic situation.
Politicians should know their limitations. Upgrading to a municipal city involves cultural and historical measures relating to local people.
Only when these foundations are secured will a city or county be able to increase its visibility.
Local governments must not ignore their foundations for superficial goals or waste social resources to pursue an unrealistic aim simply for political reasons.
There is nothing stopping mayors and county commissioners from conducting public polls to see if local residents want to upgrade their administrative status or if they prefer increased budget allocations in accordance with the Financial Income And Expenditures Compartmentalization Act (財政收支劃分法).
But if we look at the history of Taiwan and other countries, we learn that no place can have such a high number of “municipal cities.”
Based on this, it is easy to see which counties or cities simply want a piece of the action.
In addition, the history of the development of local governments shows that during the Qing Dynasty and under Japanese rule, they developed according to practical rather than political concerns.
These systems later became the foundation for local autonomy that was implemented by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in which counties were divided into smaller units.
At the time, there were no complaints that local residents would become second-class citizens if their local government was not upgraded. This is because very few counties qualified to become special municipalities based on conditions at that time.
Moreover, it is strange that Chiayi and Yunlin counties have applied for a merger that leaves Chiayi City, the most important urban area in the region, out of the picture. During the Qing Dynasty, under Japanese rule and up to the present, Chiayi City has been the center of the Yunlin-Chiayi area.
Fortunately, that proposal was not approved by the review committee.
Chiayi City would end up like Berlin, an island in the former East Germany. Would this outcome really suit the development of Yunlin and Chiayi counties?
It was unwise of the central government to propose something so unrealistic for most cities and counties. It is even more annoying to see local officials trying to benefit from the process.
Wu Quen-tsai is an associate professor in the Department of History and Geography at National Chiayi University.
TRANSLATED BY TED YANG
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