Taipei Times: Our non-Taiwanese readers are unfamiliar with your professional background and the distinguished role you played in the long struggle to establish a democratic country. Could you elaborate on how your profession has influenced you in your position as Examination Yuan president?
Yao Chia-wen (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
A stint at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972 enlightened my interest in human rights. I learned the US view that poverty is the result of people whose lives had no access to privilege.
After returning from Berkeley in 1973, I founded a pro bono consultancy to help more civilians have access to legal aid. Working at the pro bono service center led to my later devotion to the democracy movement when I decided to defend Kuo Yu-hsin (
A concern with the rule of law dominated my three-decade-long dedication to the democracy movement. The goal to obtain the right to a fair trial inspired my advocacy of legal reform. The idea was later developed to an extensive landscape of political reform to establish a democratic country.
In brief, the concern for justice has characterized my political career. It also outlines my plans to upgrade the civil-servant system, a system of 600,000 public employees, by prioritizing the principle of rule of law.
TT: Having presided over the examination body for one year, what's your impression of the nation's examination and civil-service system and the general competence of public employees?
Yao: As soon as I assumed office, I realized that the first step to upgrade the country's examination and civil-service system was to energize the Examination Yuan.
The 70-year-old body was too tardy and unresponsive to trends in organizational structure and it had failed to map out a plan to endorse the restructuring program of government agencies called for by the Presidential Office.
I gave priority to initiating reform within the Examination Yuan. I encouraged my subordinates to rethink the nature of the examination power and reminded them that the Examination Yuan should not just exercise power in accordance with laws promulgated by lawmakers. It is also duty-bound to remind the Legislative Yuan of timely legal amendments to related laws that are out of date.
Commenting on the general competence of our public employees, my only anxiety relates to their attitude, not their quality.
I believe that complaints of inefficiency have been engendered by public employees who misinterpret their occupation as a symbol of privilege, instead of perceiving themselves as public servants.
TT: Do you have a plan for improving the country's examination and civil-service system?
Yao: I encourage each and every Examination Yuan worker to keep reviewing laws and rules of national examination and civil-servant selection to modernize these systems based on notions of democracy, Taiwan-centered awareness and internationalization in the 21st century.
Through the formation of a new institutional culture, Examination Yuan personnel have gradually updated their thinking and ideas about planning for the national examination system and screening for qualifications and holding performance evaluations of public employees. A review is underway by the Ministry of Examination, for instance, to incorporate a test on WTO-related laws into the national examination for diplomats now that Taiwan is a WTO member.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Civil Service is engaged in an international pension-fund reform project. Five foreign asset management companies will be selected to undertake overseas investments of a US$500 million fund by the end of this year. The project was part of the government's plan to move national investment plans up to a global standard.
In-service training of civil servants will be reinforced to change a mentality that encourages arguments with the public in order to ultimately build an ethic with an emphasis on public duty while upgrading rules of the national examination system.
The Examination Yuan will continue to build links with other government branches like the Legislative Yuan following the set up of a permanent office for the body's liaison officers to the legislature.
The Examination Yuan looks forward to seeing the legislature approve a bill on administrative impartiality and neutrality. The draft bill was completed by the Examination Yuan in May and already has been sent to the Legislative Yuan.
TT: What is the significance of formulating a law demanding impartiality and neutrality from public employees?
Yao: A legal formulation would clearly state that civil servants must distinguish their political stance and personal conduct from their government duty and prevent abuse of national resources by ill-intentioned elements among the 600,000 civil servants.
As long as lawmakers approve the bill, public employees including ranking Control Yuan members, prosecutors and judges will be prohibited from using their power and resources for work that is irrelevant to their duties such as stumping for political candidates.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
MESSAGE: The ministry said China and the Philippines are escalating regional tensions, and Taiwan should be included in dialogue mechanisms on an equal footing Taiwan has rejected renewed sovereignty claims over the South China Sea by the Philippines and China by reaffirming its sovereignty and rights under international law over the disputed area. “The Republic of China [ROC] enjoys all rights to island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea in accordance with international law and maritime laws,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement yesterday. Other countries’ attempts to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea do not change the fact that the ROC holds sovereignty over the region, the ministry said. The MOFA statement came after
RSS