Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) on Wednesday last week proposed cutting the Ministry of Culture’s entire NT$2.309 billion (US$70.47 million) budget allocated to the Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation in a move heavily criticized by the film and arts sector.
Chen also commented on a Facebook post by Offshore Island Publishing editor-in-chief Ho Hsin-chieh (何欣潔), writing that the media need to “throw out that begging bowl.”
However, before Chen starts casting aspersions at others, she should remember that her own constituency, Kinmen County, has its own cash cow, Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor. Every year, it receives a central government subsidy of up to NT$5 billion, while the local government-run newspaper, the Kinmen Daily News, lambasts the central government in its editorials.
Based on Chen’s logic, perhaps Kinmen should stand on its own two feet and stop going to the central government with its begging bowl held aloft.
Last year, Control Yuan member Ma Hsiu-ju (馬秀如) raised concerns that Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor had donated surplus profit to the Kinmen County Government before making its tax declaration, and reported the company for enriching local government coffers at the expense of the state. Ma asked the local government to address the issue. One Kinmen county councilor said that they could not rule out mobilizing local residents to “go by” Ma’s residence.
That kind of behavior reflects poorly on the nation as a whole.
Perhaps Chen should follow her own example and propose in the Legislative Yuan that Kinmen discard its own “begging bowl.” That would reassure everyone that the KMT is genuinely watching the purse strings, mitigate the negative impression of Kinmen that the county commissioner brought upon it by attempting to intimidate a member of the Control Yuan and show that Kinmen residents stand by their reputation of being independent.
John Yu is a civil servant.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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