What are the new cabinet members like? How do their backgrounds and expertise equip them to deal with the challenging economic situation at home and abroad?

In early April, president-elect Ma Ying-jeou announced the appointment of Liu Chao-shiuan, 65-year-old president of Soochow University, as premier.

Holder of a BS in chemistry from National Taiwan University and a PhD in chemistry from Toronto University, and a former president of National Tsinghua University, Liu first entered the Cabinet in 1993 as minister of transportation and communications. In that position he pushed resolutely to end the monopoly position of the state-owned Chunghwa Telecom and oversaw the construction of a second terminal at Taoyuan International Airport. In late 1997 he stepped up to become vice premier in the cabinet then headed by Vincent Siew, thus rounding out a very impressive administrative resume.

A man of many talents, Liu in his youth co-authored a martial arts novel with his brothers. One can only wonder what sort of "black-belt moves" he is likely to come up with during his second round in the cabinet to lead his "band of fighters" through a landscape strewn with dangers. Observers are eagerly waiting to see how he deals with cross-strait business and trade relations, global inflation, sharp wealth disparity, government ethics, and the need for effective government.

After two weeks of discussions with potential appointees, Liu completed his cabinet lineup, which is generally dominated by academics, officials from Kuomintang (KMT) think tanks, and technocrats with expertise in financial and business matters. In addition, however, some appointments have caught observers by surprise.

Of the 36 new cabinet members, 24 have doctoral degrees, and six of these are university presidents. This level of education in a cabinet is rare anywhere in the world.

When from the 1970s the Chiang Ching-kuo administration invited large numbers of academics to join the cabinet, international news media at the time spoke of Confucian values at work. Today, as the KMT returns to power, it appears the belief still lives that "a scholar who excels should enter government."

An editorial in the Economic Daily News noted that people who rose to prominence in the old KMT-like Lien Chan, Chen Li-an, Frederick Chien, and James Soong-were elite politicians who had studied in the United States and had a cosmopolitan outlook, but they were disconnected from the needs of the grassroots, Taiwan-centric part of society. As a result, the KMT achieved an economic miracle yet fell from power because it lost favor with the people. When Chen Shui-bian, with his humble background and a law degree from National Taiwan University, took over the presidency, he displayed the same emphasis on academic achievement. Chen's most prestigious supporter of all was Lee Yuan-tseh, a highly acclaimed Nobel laureate in chemistry and at that time president of the Academia Sinica. Lee took part in the formulation of a wide range of government policies, but in the end he made his biggest "contribution" by breaking down the general public's unquestioning faith in academic achievers. People came to understand that those with specialized expertise in one little corner of academia are of limited use in the rough-and-tumble world of public affairs, where actors and positions are so often at odds with each other.

But high academic achievement is not really the most interesting feature of the new cabinet members. More noteworthy is the fact that most have lots of experience in the world of politics and are technocrats with extremely strong professional credentials. In addition to the vice president, the premier, and the vice premier, other returnees from former KMT administrations include Chiang Pin-kung (new chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation), Mao Chi-kuo (Ministry of Transportation and Communications), and Yiin Chii-ming (Ministry of Economic Affairs). In one sense it is a good thing to have these veterans return to the cabinet for one last go at government service, since it lessens the shock of switching to a new ruling party. On the other hand, however, it shows that the methodical cultivation of talent in the KMT was interrupted in 2000 when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power. The long hiatus has left a gap in KMT ranks that will have to be filled moving forward.

In the beleaguered financial sector, Taiwan will count on the services of three officials who dealt with the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s. Ten years ago, Vincent Siew and Liu Chao-shiuan were the premier and vice premier, while Paul Chiu headed the Ministry of Finance. But will the trio's experience from the past be of use as they deal with today's brutal conditions? Many remain concerned on this score.

In the view of Chou Yang-shan, a professor at the Graduate Institute of China Studies at National Kinmen Institute of Technology, the formation of the new cabinet can be seen as taking place in two phases. In the first phase, the administration is using competent officials from the KMT era who have a clean reputation and didn't accept government positions during the eight years of DPP rule. The idea is to quickly get the government up and running, stabilize the civil service, boost the economy, and deal with issues that have sent cross-strait relations into the deep freeze. In Chou's opinion, the current cabinet lineup is not a surprising one.

He further opines that the elections for city mayors and county magistrates late next year will mark an inflection point in Ma Ying-jeou's four-year term. When the time comes, mayors and magistrates who have just left office may be taken into the cabinet and groomed for a changing of the guard within the KMT. But regardless of whether the administration appoints people who have been through the struggles of local elective politics or people from the business community with experience in the international sphere, Taiwan cannot hope to become more internationally competitive simply by easing restrictions on cross-strait economic ties. There is also much work to be done in education, science, technology, and culture. Readjusting the entire structure of society is a major undertaking, and the challenges are tremendous.

Another feature of the new cabinet is its ten female members. This a new record, and easily fulfills Ma's campaign promise that women would "account for at least one-third of the cabinet for the next eight years." The biggest surprises of all were the appointments of Wang Ching-feng to head the Ministry of Justice, Wang Ju-hsuan to lead the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), and Lai Shin-yuan as chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), all of whom are social activists previously without official positions.

It was quite a shock for many to see the appointment of Wang Ching-feng, who has served in the Control Yuan, fought court cases in Japan as counsel for Taiwanese "comfort women," spoken out in defense of minor-age prostitutes, death-row inmates, and other disadvantaged members of society, and got in a dispute with law enforcement authorities over her investigation of the assassination attempt against the president and vice president on March 19, 2004.

Wang has indicated complete agreement with Ma Ying-jeou's stance that "those running the justice system should be non-partisan." For this reason, she would not and could not get involved in the cases involving matters such as President Chen's use of the state affairs fund or the March 19 assassination attempt. She also calls on prosecutors to stand up to political pressure, act in the cause of justice, and make the Ministry of Justice into a "people's ministry of justice."

Newly appointed CLA head Wang Ju-hsuan is also a lawyer. A pioneer activist who has long devoted her energies to legislative initiatives on gender equality and the prevention of domestic violence, she successfully defended Teng Ju-wen against murder charges when the latter killed her husband after years of abuse. Wang Ju-hsuan also acted as counsel for former vice president Annette Lu when the latter sued The Journalist for defamation.

Lai Shin-yuan, meanwhile, is a former legislator from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and a favorite of former president Lee Teng-hui, and her appointment to head the MAC sparked a brief political uproar. Blue camp supporters and people running businesses in mainland China were especially concerned that Lai's green camp ties and the strong pro-independence views that she has expressed in the past would scupper the positive atmosphere in cross-strait relations generated when Vincent Siew met with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Hainan in mid-April. Criticism flew, with observers talking about "a check on KMT power" and a "two-pronged strategy."

Lai later clarified that the TSU has been gradually putting the independence vs. reunification debate behind it and has now taken a center-left path that focuses on caring for the needs of the underprivileged, and that this is quite compatible with Ma Ying-jeou's "no reunification, no independence, no war" and Taiwan-centric stance, whereby the president puts top priority on safeguarding the interests of the people. At a subsequent routine press conference, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the PRC's State Council refused to comment on the matter, but instead stressed that there is still "good momentum" in cross-strait relations. After this reaction showed that Beijing is unwilling to allow a single appointment to derail the new thaw in cross-strait relations, the furor over Lai's appointment finally died down.

On another front, the new cabinet was dealt an unexpected blow when Liao Fung-te, who was slated to take over the reins at the Ministry of the Interior, died suddenly of a heart attack. Liao was a journalist, novelist, and history professor who had won a string of elections in recent years as a KMT candidate. A man of tremendous talents, his sudden passing caused considerable shock and dismay, and many people even called on the new cabinet not to go overboard at the office, but to be sure and take good care of their health.

On May 6, with inauguration day not far off, Liu Chao-shiuan gave a pep talk at a training session for new cabinet members. Liu stressed that the new cabinet would not have a honeymoon period or a chance to gradually ease into the job. He called on all appointees to begin making substantive contributions from their very first day on the job so that the people would not have to see the government acting with incompetence.

Liu likened the cabinet to a sports team, with himself as head coach charged with responsibility for leading the team to victory. The cabinet does not need superstars, what it needs is teamwork, said Liu, who added with a flourish: "Let's go out there and win!" Observers everywhere are looking on expectantly in hopes that Liu's cabinet will hit one out of the park as the KMT returns to power.