The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has proposed amendments to the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) that would put the brakes on pension reform progress.
On April 12, legislators voted on the KMT’s motion to review its draft amendments. The KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party mobilized their legislators, and the KMT’s motion passed by just one or two votes in the three rounds of votes taken. However, the day’s votes were annulled due to an anomaly.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan People’s Party, which one might expect to support pension reforms from the standpoint of young people, decided to abstain.
The three parties’ lawmakers rallied around their respective party lines, but the important issue of pension reforms should not be a party-political battlefield.
In the US, the Democratic and the Republican parties are often locked in conflict, but many bills of national strategic importance are passed after a consensus is reached between the two parties. Whichever party is in opposition does not oppose every bill just for the sake of opposing it. That willingness to cooperate is a normal state of affairs in a mature democracy, as opposed to acting as if there is an election being held every day.
Pension reform is one of those issues that ruling and opposition parties should reach a consensus on. Taiwan’s falling birthrate is obvious just looking at the number of births recorded each year. The number of new workers joining the labor market falls with each passing year, while the number of people retiring keeps increasing.
All the policies adopted in the past were based on the false assumption that the working population would continue to grow. Welfare policies that include healthcare and pensions, must be comprehensively reviewed. If not, serious problems are sure to arise, possibly in the short term, but at least within the next decade or so. It does not take a mathematical genius to work out these simple facts.
Of course opposition parties are there to supervise the government. However, when it comes to the obviously serious problem of pension reforms, if the opposition wants to criticize anything, it should be that the existing reforms do not go far enough and are being implemented too slowly.
In light of Taiwan’s population structure, it is clearly no longer possible, as it was in the past, to be generous with other people’s money. That would result in each generation carrying a heavier burden than the one before, as the next generation keeps shrinking or possibly even disappear if the burden is too heavy. Couples of childbearing age might decide not to have children, who would in effect be born into debt. Alternatively, they might simply emigrate.
Political news media have reveled in the spectacle of the cliffhanger vote on pension reforms, with parties thinking of any possible way to criticize and blame each other. However, it would be wrong for the three parties not to push pension reform forward — which has to be done one way or another — by reaching a consensus.
Does the KMT want to be in opposition forever? If the government’s tax revenue is completely doled out to retirees who are no longer productive, it would cause government debt to spike, while not enough money would be invested in anything else.
If the KMT gets back into power at some point and takes over a country that is financially bankrupt, with crumbling infrastructure due to insufficient maintenance and construction, who will be blaming whom? Any future KMT government would wish it could get ahold of today’s KMT legislators and give them a thorough scolding.
Inter-party wrangling, with each party having its own standpoints, is a normal state of affairs in the world of politics. However, if one wants to oppose something just for the sake of it, one has to pick the right issues to squabble over. The pension system must be reformed. The only problem is that it has not been reformed fast or thoroughly enough. There is no room for further delay, still less for backtracking.
For Taiwan to have a future, it must invest in young people, not just dole out money to the elderly. As for young people themselves, they should open their eyes and see which party’s political machinations are destroying their future.
Tommy Lin is president of the Formosa Republican Association and the Taiwan United Nations Alliance.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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