Health Department Minister Yaung Chih-liang is determined to resign because of the controversy over raising national health insurance premiums. He has complained that the country has been hijacked by elections, as the government dares not do anything for fear of election defeat.

Yaung’s view was shared by many. But if we were to look deeper into the matter, we would find that politicians who misconstrue mainstream public opinion, rather than Taiwan’s many elections, are to blame for the government’s failure to promote policies that are necessary to lead the country forward.

For a long time, politicians from the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been reluctant to unveil public policies before elections in order to avoid displeasing voters.

But the passive attitude of politicians in doing nothing to please voters does not necessarily work, as evidenced by the results of the 2008 legislative and presidential elections when the then ruling DPP suffered consecutive losses.

In the run-up to the elections, it froze domestic gasoline prices out of election considerations to spare consumers from skyrocketing crude oil prices, but it also cost the state-run petroleum giant CPC Corp., Taiwan tens of billions of dollars.

In Yaung’s view, Taiwan is a mature society in which the majority of the people are rational enough to cope with hikes in oil prices and insurance premiums.

If the politicians are right that the government should not move to carry out policies that could upset voters before elections, then the country will not be able to move forward.

The DPP government was voted down by the people because it focused its energy only on election-related policies, but the KMT administration, by advocating the “plebian economy”, is actually doing the same thing, miring Taiwan in endless stagnation. (March 14, 2010) (By Bear Lee)

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