A few days ago, I made an announcement that I would not attend any of the Greater Tainan Council meetings until corruption cases against newly elected Tainan Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are settled. I did so to safeguard Tainan’s dignity and to increase society’s engagement with local politics.
With the intention of transforming local politics, I propose using information transparency to promote an open government, which will make up for the shortcomings of the current system of representative politics in the municipality.
By stressing transparency in information disclosure, the decisionmaking process and service provision, the public can directly oversee and become involved in government. With the prevalence of the Internet, disclosure of government information not only makes civil oversight a possibility, but also, and perhaps more importantly, facilitates actual civic engagement.
An open government will not only be able to foster oversight through transparency, but also further civic participation and collaboration between the private and the public sectors. The civil movements that have taken place in recent years, including the Sunflower movement, validate the necessity of a transparent government.
Unlike in the past, information disclosure alone is not sufficient, for incomplete or static information can no longer meet the needs for civic engagement. The information has to be fully disclosed, as well as be easily and readily accessible and applicable. Only then can civic engagement be a reality.
When bribery is involved in local politics, the basis of a representative democracy is compromised, city councils will fail to represent the public will and public welfare is left by the wayside. This is what is happening in Tainan, and that is why I have proposed an open government that can deepen civic oversight and engagement to make Tainan’s government one that is truly governed by the people, and a democratic system that is shared by city residents.
This is brand-new thinking for a democracy, utilizing technology as the interface for civic engagement, and this form of democratic government will be transparent, engaging and collaborative. Based on these concepts, we have made public on the city government’s official Web site hundreds of compilations of information for the past year, and we will publish more policy information in the future for the public to oversee and review.
We will also invite the public to take part in the city government’s plan for transparent information. Over time, we will systematically realize the goal of an open government. Ultimately, we want all government information to be fully disclosed.
Furthermore, the city government will set up channels to directly communicate with citizens, such as complete, live broadcasts of city council meetings and mayoral conferences, and the continuation of the annual district meetings in which district councilors have face-to-face conversations with borough officers and residents.
Councilors will no longer be able to shirk their responsibility as supervisors, and will themselves be subject to public scrutiny.
William Lai is the mayor of Greater Tainan.
Translated by Ethan Zhan
World leaders are preparing themselves for a second Donald Trump presidency. Some leaders know more or less where he stands: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy knows that a difficult negotiation process is about to be forced on his country, and the leaders of NATO countries would be well aware of being complacent about US military support with Trump in power. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely be feeling relief as the constraints placed on him by the US President Joe Biden administration would finally be released. However, for President William Lai (賴清德) the calculation is not simple. Trump has surrounded himself
US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named US Representative Mike Waltz, a vocal supporter of arms sales to Taiwan who has called China an “existential threat,” as his national security advisor, and on Thursday named US Senator Marco Rubio, founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China — a global, cross-party alliance to address the challenges that China poses to the rules-based order — as his secretary of state. Trump’s appointments, including US Representative Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, who has been a strong supporter of Taiwan in the US Congress, and Robert Lighthizer as US trade
Following the BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia, last month, media outlets circulated familiar narratives about Russia and China’s plans to dethrone the US dollar and build a BRICS-led global order. Each summit brings renewed buzz about a BRICS cross-border payment system designed to replace the SWIFT payment system, allowing members to trade without using US dollars. Articles often highlight the appeal of this concept to BRICS members — bypassing sanctions, reducing US dollar dependence and escaping US influence. They say that, if widely adopted, the US dollar could lose its global currency status. However, none of these articles provide
On Friday last week, tens of thousands of young Chinese took part in a bike ride overnight from Henan Province’s Zhengzhou (鄭州) to the historical city of Kaifeng in search of breakfast. The night ride became a viral craze after four female university students in June chronicled their ride on social media from Zhengzhou in search of soup dumplings in Kaifeng. Propelled by the slogan “youth is priceless,” the number of nocturnal riders surged to about 100,000 on Friday last week. The main road connecting the two cities was crammed with cyclists as police tried to maintain order. That sparked
RSS