Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) faced major challenges such as the US-China trade and technology dispute, aggressive interest rate hikes in the US, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and high inflation. Under her leadership, the government responded to each of these issues calmly.
She also expanded economic and trade relations with the US, Japan, Europe and Southeast Asia to enhance Taiwan’s economic strength. Her administration grew the economic pie so everyone can claim a bigger share, and kept Taiwan’s freedom and democracy in good condition.
Nevertheless, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has issues that must be urgently addressed, such as complaints about worsening income distribution, low wages, high housing prices, and the slow progress of repairing unsafe and aging buildings, as well as serious information security problems that have led to rampant fraud.
In the elections in 2022 and January, voters wisely chose the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to lead the executive branch, while electing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers at the local level, and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) representatives in Hsinchu and Kinmen counties. The three main political parties must govern rationally, and cooperate and supervise one another to continue to enhance the nation’s competitiveness.
However, since taking office in February, the KMT — despite being elected in most counties and cities and holding the most seats in the Legislative Yuan — has put its political interests above the nation’s and defied public opinion.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has hijacked the party and forced the introduction of more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.74 billion) in construction bills that would only benefit his Hualien County constituency, while squeezing the resources of other areas. KMT legislators conceded without objections, while the TPP blindly supported it, showing that they have failed in their duties.
Fu has ignored that residential electricity prices are the fifth-lowest in the world and industrial electricity prices are the third-lowest, which has caused Taipower to sustain long-term losses. Instead of instituting an overall price freeze, electricity rates for luxury homes and factories should be raised during peak hours.
However, Fu insists on freezing electricity rates — a brainless populist move — while subsidizing Taipower’s hundreds of billions of dollars of losses, which would leave the poor to essentially subsidize the rich.
It is regrettable that TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a recipient of the National Science and Technology Council’s Ta-You Wu Memorial Award, blindly supported the proposal. It is clear that they do not take the welfare of the people as the basis for their political affairs.
The legislative reform bill they promoted should have been submitted to committees for substantive discussion, but they acted too hastily and forced it to pass. That severely damaged the democratic mechanism that took so long to establish. Fu and Huang are no longer qualified to serve as caucus whips.
None of the three parties hold an absolute majority in the legislature. DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) needs to realize that he no longer has the final say as he did before, and should listen to public opinion and different voices within the party. In addition, Ker is old, so a younger DPP legislator should take over.
The Lai administration must bring together the DPP, KMT and TPP. They should join hands to govern rationally and create a better future. The party chairmen should consider replacing the caucus whips to avoid public backlash.
Jang Show-ling is an adjunct professor in National Taiwan University’s economics department.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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