"Non-governmental organizations and government bureaucracies are two parallel lines that will never cross. Interact? Cooperate? That's easier said than done!" says one social activist, who firmly states that he has nothing to do with the government.

On the other hand, government bureaucrats are also up to their ears in resentment: "Non-governmental reform groups are often convinced beforehand that the government lacks the sincerity to solve problems and intentionally places pressure on them. But think about it--there are many different angles to public opinion. Which NGO should I talk to? In which field of concern should I start asking questions? And to what level should my questions probe?"

NGOs to date have no effective channels to participate in the countless detailed activities of public administration that are underway on a daily basis. Nevertheless, NGO personnel may indeed be recruited by specialized consultative committees to help formulate policy for major issues.

Join the ranks?

One good example is the Executive Yuan's Council on Education Reform, established in September of last year and headed by Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh. Of its 28 committee members, National Taiwan University professors of psychology Yang Kuo-shu and Huang Jung-tsuen were selected on the basis of their backgrounds in private-sector reform activity. Because they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, their opinions were not necessarily accepted by everyone, and the committee's first-term report still attracted criticism from private educational reform organizations. Nevertheless, Chang Tze-chou and Shih Ying of the April Ten Educational Reform Alliance admit, "With our own people inside the system, there is responsiveness between the inside and the outside, so that we can still have a powerful voice and increase the pace of reform."

Another example is amending the family provisions of the Civil Code. Last year several women's groups put forward new ideas on the subject and used a law suit to request the Supreme Court to review the civil code. They succeeded in getting a judgment that "the text of the present article 1089 of the civil code dealing with family relations displays obvious undesirable sexual discrimination, is unconstitutional and must be abrogated within two years." After this decision, the Ministry of Justice energetically started revision work. The principal movers in requesting the Supreme Court interpretation, Awakening Foundation chairwoman Dagmar Mei-nu Yu and Wang Ju-hsuan, both attorneys, were selected to participate in the revision working group. Because they were already on familiar terms with the Ministry of Justice's Revisions Committee, they were extremely compatible in outlook, and therefore the second stage of the rough draft, which dealt with divorce settlements and child custody, tallied up for the most part with women's groups' expectations.

Nevertheless, in view of current rumors of a large-scale shuffle in personnel at the Ministry of Justice, will these women be appointed to help formulate even more crucial issues, such as the third stage, which will deal with distribution of property between husband and wife? If others are appointed in their stead, will they be allowed to play the important role of "guardian of the cause"? Dagmar Yu has absolutely no control over the situation and describes herself as "nervously hanging in suspense."

The government's broad assimilation of non-governmental personnel theoretically should be a happy turn of events. But because the foundation of mutual trust on both sides is indeed quite fragile, those who are brought into the public sector are inevitably interpreted by their former colleagues as "lukewarm and easily lured to the other side." Those still waving the banner and cheering for the non-governmental camp are often labeled by governmental officials as "talking tough in order to get what they want." In the end, it turns out that even simple objectives become more difficult because of the large number of people involved. The issue of the government's selection standards and the question of whether or not NGO members should refuse to work with the government has become a taxing and bewildering ordeal.

Tug of war between ideals and pragmatism

The fundamental barrier engendering weak mutual trust is actually not one of ideals; rather, it is a question of the speed and methods of reform. The administrative establishment's burden is heavier. Operative convenience and "do-ability" are their foremost practical considerations. Nevertheless, this kind of caution becomes a "lack of sincere commitment to reform" in the eyes of non-governmental activists.

For instance such humanistic educational ideas as ending corporal punishment, having smaller schools and smaller classes, and letting teachers have autonomy in planning lessons are presently common goals which no one opposes. Yet the observable prospects of the objective environment do not inspire optimism: Large schools with more than seventy or eighty classes, and each class containing more than forty students, are extremely common, and in urban areas where every inch of land is exorbitantly priced, finding land for new schools is an even more daunting task. Given the circumstances, is it possible for non-governmental educational reform groups to insist that teachers immediately abandon corporal punishment? And how much time should they give the government to implement the goal of smaller schools and smaller classes?

Private social action groups, anxious for reform, take the greatest pride in "always being more advanced than the government." However, in the current situation in which political parties commonly alternate in power, more than a few critics might find themselves bogged down in the quagmire of the system if they rise to power. After having seen many such examples, NGO leaders are not unaware that criticizing is easier than doing the actual work. "The government isn't going to ask me to come serve in the public sector. If they did ask me, I'm afraid it wouldn't be easy to do a good job," admits one leader of an educational reform group. Once he switched roles from offense to defense, it would also be hard for him to escape "being vulnerable to attack."

Are these difficulties unresolvable? In fact, they are not inevitable. National Taiwan University associate professor of sociology Chen Tung-sheng observes that in Western countries that have the political tradition of city-states, public services frequently have a structure starting from the bottom and moving up. Each community has its own self-government council. Schools get their authority from the local parents' association. Local citizens also participate to a great degree in city planning.

With this kind of structure, people don't need to obtain an official rank in the government; citizens have a number of channels to participate in public affairs. Through these avenues, interested persons can gain administrative practice in public affairs, coming to understand its complexities and difficulties, and can cultivate their abilities, so that they will not put forward opinions that are lofty yet do not take into account administrative problems.

The challenge inside the system

Perhaps in Taiwan the democratic climate has not reached maturity, yet the administrative system, originally closed and operating from the top downward, has opened a door to the outside. In the past two or three years, reform groups have been commissioned by the government in some areas, and more and more have begun to be incorporated within the parameters of the system. As they had wished, reform groups have expanded the field of battle from outside the system to inside the system. The only problem is that in changing from critics to practitioners, the challenges that they now face are distinctly different from those of the past.

Starting in September of last year, the April Ten Educational Reform Alliance implemented the "Modern Education Experimental Classrooms" in Taipei City and Taipei County, hoping to bring to reality hitherto untried educational concepts. Nevertheless, even if the government is willing to make a little space for NGOs to express themselves freely, NGOs are still unable to gain the full cooperation of the system.

"The other teachers are all waiting for us to make fools of ourselves. They say we have absolutely no chance of success." April Ten Alliance convener Chang Tze-chou has lent a hand solving the problem of "experimental class students being too noisy and getting out of control during class," in response to the invitation of a teacher at a middle school experimenting with new policies. As a result, he is also deeply aware the troubles NGOs face in challenging the prevailing system.

Tso I-lan, consultant for the Taipei Association for Mentally Retarded Persons, who in the past two years has been commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior to train temporary day-care workers for the mentally challenged, exclaims, "Right now the government lacks a viewpoint of 'buying services from the private sector.' They still believe that if non-governmental organizations want to do a little something, they ought to come up with their own funding. For the government to help subsidize is a kind of 'charity'!"

Getting money from the government to accomplish their tasks frequently makes NGOs feel restrained in every direction. The Awakening Foundation took the lead in giving moral support to Teng Ju-wen, a Taiwanese housewife recently on trial for killing her abusive husband. Subsequently, they were commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior's Department of Social Affairs to do research on marital violence prevention law. Often, they feel that they don't know whether to laugh or to cry. "Every time we have a meeting, instead of first discussing the contents of our research, the first thing we do is get busy collecting everybody's expense account receipts," says Dagmar Yu.

When will they band together?

One positive aspect of experiencing firsthand the system's vast powers of restraint is that when voicing protest, non-governmental organizations will occasionally manifest sympathy for the bureaucrats. Yet it also leads some of the NGOs to be deeply wary of themselves: Once they have received a commission and begin to cooperate with the establishment, they inevitably begin to ossify. The flexibility and the wide spectrum of ideas that non-governmental organizations originally possess begin to erode. How can the NGOs retain their fundamental character of reform and dissent after linking up with administrative agencies? That is yet another challenge.

"If the government doesn't do a good job, we will correct it and monitor it. If the government conscientiously does a good job, of course we ought to help it," says Wild Bird Society of Taipei executive director Mary Tseng.

That day is perhaps far in the offing, but it is still worth looking forward to. Finally, the activist groups' clamorous protests and the government's dodging the public eye and putting on a pained smile for the camera may one day be replaced by both sides joining hands and moving forward together.

[Picture Caption]

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Private groups acting with commitment, the government lending assistance from the sidelines, both sides clasping hands--thisis one of the most important trends of the future. The picture shows an open-air car wash service, on rented government land, which creates job opportunities for persons with disfigured faces.

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With the active participation of private individuals, it is possible to foster among average citizens the ability to handle public affairs, as well as a familiarity with administrative procedures. The picture shows the Hsinkang Arts Festival, jointly organized by both the community and the government in March of last year.