Cabinet Reshuffled, Local Financial Reform Begins Afresh

The government has agreed to evaluate the feasibility of concrete proposals that farmers and fishermen raised during the 11/23 demonstration, and avers its intention to quicken reform in their industries. On November 30 the Executive Yuan convened a National Agricultural Finance Conference, in which participants explored the roots of the problems, and possible solutions. It is certainly to be hoped that farmers can be rescued from their current plight.

In fact, the Yu Shyi-kun cabinet has continually touted the importance of financial, economic, and political reform. At the end of June, the Executive Yuan established a special team to outline financial reforms. Invoking existing banking laws, the Ministry of Finance announced a tiered management policy for the credit departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations. The goal was to follow up on the August 2001 partial intervention (in which a special fund was used to take over and restructure 36 of the worst-run ones) by tackling the widespread problem of unrepaid loans at these credit institutions, to protect farmers' real interests.

However, for the loan officers at these institutions, the restrictions on large loans would have been a straitjacket. Moreover, the policy was implemented without sufficient communication with farmers. Taiwan's recent WTO entry has caused product prices to plummet and farmland values to depreciate, making it difficult for farmers to take out loans. Such conditions have created a lack of funding for other farmers' association departments outside the credit departments, including marketing, promotion, and insurance. The sum effect has been to create a sense of crisis within the associations, convincing them that the government intends to abolish them.

Given such sentiments, the Farmers' and Fishermen's Self-Help Associations responded by organizing the 11/23 demonstration, through which they intended to present the government with ten demands.

A chain reaction of local marches spread like wildfire from one township to the next. With the number of protesters surpassing 100,000, the gravity of the situation became increasingly evident. On November 17, five DPP county executives from southern Taiwan met with President Chen to discuss popular dissatisfaction with the proposed policy. Not long afterward, the Executive Yuan announced its decision to suspend implementation. The president personally went to Tainan, his birthplace, to speak with farmers and fisherman to clarify the government's purpose in adopting the reforms. Chen avowed that certain individuals in the Executive Yuan had failed to accurately assess the situation or judiciously execute the reform, resulting in the government's mishandling of the entire affair. He asked that the protests be cancelled in light of the suspension of the proposed reforms.

On November 21, Premier Yu Shyi-kun submitted his resignation to the president, to take responsibility for the discontent generated by the botched reform. Finally, after tendering his resignation three times, the premier agreed to stay on and continue to promote reform. However, finance minister Lee Yung-san and COA chairman Fan Chen-tzung insisted on stepping down, and were replaced by Lin Chuan and Lee Jin-long. Only then did the cabinet regain its bearings.

Many have expressed concern that this reform debacle will give rise to a mentality that groups dissatisfied with government policy need only take to the streets to break the government's will and achieve their agendas.

However, other scholars offer a different perspective. The government had failed to accurately assess grassroots conditions, and 120,000 farmers and fishermen had made a peaceful, rational protest that ended without violence. Their appeals for an agriculture development fund, subsidies to help farmers cope with the losses caused by WTO entry, and changes to laws on farmer's and fishermen's associations, all point to their desire for the government to help them out of their current predicament and build up agriculture. Now that these concrete proposals have been made, says Chen Po-chih, director of the Taiwan Thinktank, the government can evaluate their feasibility so as to promote reform and progress in farming and fisheries. Norman Yin, a professor of finance at National Chengchi University, adds that the protests will teach the government to listen more carefully to Taiwan's farmers and fishermen.

As for doubts expressed by some commentators that the government appears to have surrendered on the basic direction of financial reform, on the 24th President Chen declared that the delay in implementing the reforms is aimed at a more comprehensive and widely acceptable form of restructuring, not abandonment of the policy. The Executive Yuan has also announced that it will thoroughly examine all its policies in the future, and will undertake more consultations with affected parties before implementing any major measure, while at the same time showing even more determination to proceed with reform.

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The protest on 11/23 brought together 120,000 fishermen and farmers from around the island before drawing to a calm and rational conclusion. In the photo, the assembled protesters are packed into the broad courtyard at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. (photo by Jimmy Lin)