Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has been Premier of Taiwan for just under two months – and has decided that it’s time to show where his priorities lie:
Faced with public complaints concerning rising crime rates, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has pledged to improve social order and list it as a top priority for his administration, adding that he will withdraw from political life if he fails to live up to his promise within six months.
This is a good move in so many different ways: Tackling crime is obviously something important for Taiwan, it’s something that affects people directly (as compared to the abstract way the unification/independence arguments have any impact), it’s something which Premier Su actually has some control over, and it attempts to distance him from the topics of eternal Green-Blue bitching.
At the same time as Chen Shui-bian is talking up his grand vision of constitutional reform, which (while I agree with it strongly in principal) is going to go nowhere and get dragged down into the same old independence battles, Su is asking to be judged on his performance fighting crime. As Premier, Su has to support everything the President does – as shown when he spent hours defending Chen’s NUC decision to the legislature, despite having little or no say in the decision to scrap the council. So the best he can do is to make it clear what are his ideas and what are Chen’s.
Of course, the cynical amongst you will be wondering how sincere this promise to withdraw from politics if he fails is. After all, Su promised to (and did) step down as DPP Head to take responsibility for the local election failure of his party – only to be promoted to Premier as a result. Politicians who fall on their sword in Taiwan usually reappear sooner rather than later. There is also the question of how Su wants to be judged:
“You may find some statistics in our report, but we are not using those statistics as a gauge of our performance in maintaining social order,” Su said. “I care more about how people feel about our work, hoping that they can feel our determination to attain our goal.”
“I will resign from the premiership and withdraw from Taiwan’s political circles forever if most people do not feel any improvement concerning social order six months from today,” Su said.
Translation: Su will be judged by a government-sponsored opinion poll. Given that opinion polls in Taiwan have a long history of bias dependent on who commissioned them, Su should be pretty safe.
Cynicism aside, this is a good move by Su. I must say, I’ve been impressed with him so far as Premier – he’s always been an immensely likeable politician (one of the few!), but he seems to be showing a general competence and political savvy as well.
Yes! I was just discussing with a colleague today how he’s so far avoided trying to strong-arm the LY yet has maintained his mojo within the party. My colleague made an interesting point by noting that while by this time in their own terms as premier, both Frank Hsieh and Yu Shyi-kun had almost gone out of their way to pick fights in order to emerge from Chen Shui-bian’s shadow. I think (hope) that as long as Su keeps a low profile and works behind the scenes like this he’ll manage to avoid getting fragged in Chen’s inevitible showdowns with the LY in the future.
.
.
.
Su will destroy Ma. Mark my words.
.
.
.
Yes, great idea. Su will start a campaign whose success would impact the lives of all citizens, while avoiding the biggest obstacle to progress that the country faces, namely the legislature. Of course the next obstacle is going to be the NPA who are going to be asked to do something they have never done before. Their jobs. Su can lean on the heads of the NPA who are political appointees, or replace them at will as much as he likes, but it makes little difference to the cop on duty.
My biggest fear here is that the police force will take it upon themselves to make sure that this initiative is dropped asap. It’s in the police’s nature to avoid dangerous criminals outside of sessions at the KTV and focus more on the collecting of red envelopes and driving around scribbling in little books. Instead of targeting violent crime and gang activity, they will step up the enforcement of petty laws instead. A successful crackdown on gangs will only result in pressure to continue the campaign. OTOH the persecution of petty offenses on housewives and grandmothers will only result in a wave of complaints from Joe Public and thus popular pressure to drop the campaign. I can hear the pan-blue side preparing the green-terror, Chen-is-Hitler accusations already.
.
.
.
…Tackling crime is obviously something important for Taiwan, it’s something that affects people directly (as compared to the abstract way the unification/independence arguments have any impact)…
I wouldn’t undermine the “abstract” notions of unification / independence so much. Especially when it is juxtaposed with democracy and freedom. According to the latest independent poll, the Taiwanese strongly believe that maintaining democracy and freedom is more important than economic development. This flies in the face of the “pragmatism” we’ve heard so much about lately.
CHECK IT OUT.
.
.
.
This is a different take on him, but he’s just a very confident guy. He’s very “can do” and in many ways, very much the stereotypical old school Taiwanese male. At the very least, this makes standing up to the poisonous atmosphere of the Legislative Yuan just a little easier and more possible.
Every politician or official that ever considers a Cabinet level post has to consider whether their current job is better than going to the LY and getting shit on everyday. I think about that, and it has to have an effect on the quality and kinds of people that they can get to take Cabinet level posts (Pasuya just lucked out and had a powerful patron in Frank Hsieh, but maybe this would help explain some of the other incompetence).
Yeah, basically, I like Su a lot too, and I’m cautiously hopeful things will improve.
On the communication between branches of government–exactly what needs to be done, especially in a country where government officials are more apt to claim non-responsibility than responsibility in some kind of anti-version of American political turf wars. I.e., you can’t say it’s not yours to solve if you’ve already to talked to everyone else and eliminate the possibility it’s anyone else’s responsibility.
I meant communication among the different departments that Su is calling for to aid in law enforcement. Too scatterbrain today.
Pingback: Politics from Taiwan » Policing Taiwan