Taiwan has been uplifted by Japan’s donation of 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, but it is disheartening to see central and local governments divided in their pandemic responses.
Soon after Japan’s plan to deliver the vaccines was reported by foreign media, certain local media began touting the central government’s low-profile arrangements in making the delivery possible, citing anonymous sources from high-ranking national security agencies. Japan’s donation is heartwarming, and no one would question the central government’s achievement in negotiating with Japan for this aid. Nonetheless, the nation has its own battles to fight. Additional medical resources are of no avail if the central and local governments do not put aside their political differences and work closely to contain the pandemic, a lesson that Taiwan should have learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers on Thursday pointed their fingers at New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), accusing him of not doing enough to contain the municipality’s COVID-19 outbreak.
When they chose to openly attack a local mayor in a battle that demands unity and coordination, they betrayed their attempt to strive for the power of discourse over the pandemic. Likewise, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is being engaged in meaningless arguments with local governments of outlying islands when it should be coordinating the nation’s efforts.
The CECC on Tuesday abruptly reversed decisions by the Kinmen, Lienchiang and Penghu county governments to require all arriving tourists to undergo rapid virus screening. Although many local residents had expressed support for the plans, the CECC said that the governments had contravened the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) by not obtaining its approval beforehand.
The Kinmen County Government said it had twice reported to the CECC without receiving a response, raising questions as to whether the CECC only cared about power centralization without attending to the needs of other regions. While the Kinmen government persists in its rapid screening plan at its airport, the Kinmen Hospital, which is operated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, on Wednesday pledged its loyalty to the CECC and stopped supporting virus screening at the airport.
Such a tug-of-war between central and local governments does nothing to promote disease control, but lays bare the nasty power struggles between ruling and opposition parties, given that all three outlying counties are governed by KMT commissioners.
By contrast, DPP Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) was given immediate help with his plans to contain a cluster infection at an electronics company in the city and owns plants in neighboring Miaoli County.
Lin on Friday wrote on Facebook that he had called President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to request help from the military, with Tsai promising swift assistance. Lin said he soon after received a call from Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) to make arrangements.
While Lin’s efforts to protect the city’s semiconductor suppliers were applauded, it is questionable if KMT mayors would be able to directly request such support from the president, who is also the DPP chairperson.
The CECC has since May 20 been holding daily meetings with local governments and hosting post-meeting news conferences to report their decisions, but it is doubtful if such actions are truly effective.
When local COVID-19 outbreaks in Taipei and New Taipei City show no sign of declining, and new outbreaks are reported from other regions, the party that rules the central government should expend more effort in solving problems instead of self-promoting.
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My youngest son attends a university in Taipei. Throughout the past two years, whenever I have brought him his luggage or picked him up for the end of a semester or the start of a break, I have stayed at a hotel near his campus. In doing so, I have noticed a strange phenomenon: The hotel’s TV contained an unusual number of Chinese channels, filled with accents that would make a person feel as if they are in China. It is quite exhausting. A few days ago, while staying in the hotel, I found that of the 50 available TV channels,
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