Sharp Turn on Five-time Stimulus Voucher
China Times, August 14 and 15, 2021
The five-time stimulus voucher policy made a sharp turn after Premier Su Tseng-chang consulted with some related ministries last night. It will be all free five-time voucher while citizens don’t have to pay NT$1,000 (about US$36) for it. In fact, when this five-time voucher was initiated, it encountered endless controversies. It was not only opposed by opposition parties, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also was against it. Even President Tsai Ying-wen twice urged for good communication, Premier Su still sticked to his own opinion. It was not until yesterday when legislative Tsai faction launched a tandem event to echo the statement of “free voucher without paying to exchange” by mainstream legislative faction, this policy made a sharp turn. The strong rebound of all factions from DPP forced the arrogant and domineering Su cabinet to hit the snag. This would affect the future development of domestic political situation.
Responding to the onslaught of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Executive Yuan planned to issue five-time revitalization voucher claiming it would stimulate consumption to drive economic benefits. However, the DPP caucus of the Legislative Yuan held different opinions all time to the way of issuing the revitalization voucher.
As concurrent party chairwoman, President Tsai in presiding the party weekly routine meeting with Premier Su this Wednesday morning, reminded Su of full communication before the policy was finalized; that afternoon President Tsai in addressing the DPP central committee again said “I especially urged” to engage full communication before finalization of the policy.
Premier Su met with seven members of DPP legislative caucus to exchange opinions the day before yesterday and reached an initial conclusion: plan to expand those who could be free from paying NT$1,000, following the pattern of last three-time revitalization voucher, apart from the underprivileged low-income households, also would include those depraved people by the onslaught of the pandemic. It was estimated over nine million people would be benefited.
The Executive Yuan also arranged a meeting with all DPP legislators for discussion. But the mainstream legislative faction legislators published a common statement, proposing all people be free from paying for vouchers. Ten (10) legislators from Tsai faction, including legislators Chen Ming-wen and Lou Chih-cheng, posted on Facebook a joint statement of “Full Revitalization, Free Paying” stressing that in viewing the serious impact of the pandemic, bailout and revitalization should be synchronized, hoping Premier Su would hear and adopt opinions from all sides and directly give out NT$5,000 (about US$180) stimulus voucher. Legislator Chen Ting-fei from mainstream legislative faction also reiterated her position in hoping the executive yuan to distribute vouchers.
Because many legislators proclaimed to boycott the meeting with Premier Su next Monday, President Tsai convoked a meeting with partial factionists, officials and mayors for opinion exchange while Premier Su also convoked a meeting with some related ministries and decided to make a sharp turn policy.
According to the Executive Yuan, Premier Su after meeting with some related ministries thought if expanded to include bailout 4.0 for free from paying NT$1,000, the number was about half of the whole citizens while the other half should pay, this might cause a comparative attitude in people and incurred social disputes. Besides, the government should distribute NT$1,000 to tens of million people, its procedure would be complicated while administrative cost would be extremely high. In consideration of economy growth rate as high as 8.34 percent this first half of the year, the fruit could be shared with all people, Premier Su decided the NT$1,000 payment of all people should be absorbed by the government and instructed all ministries to plan accordingly. The meeting with DPP legislators next Monday would finalize the policy.
Under the rebounding pressure of public opinion, Premier Su agreed to let all citizens receive five-time vouchers, this sharp turn of policy was regarded as the biggest frustration for Premier Su. The blue camp analyzed that if the Tsai-Su relations were close enough, President Tsai wouldn’t take action after meeting with Tsai faction legislators. The rift between both was a tip of the iceberg. Many scholars said directly that Su couldn’t but agree with free voucher in order to defend his premiership, after all president was the boss, arrogant and domineering as Premier Su could only bow down.
But Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-tze pointed out that the executive yuan absolutely didn’t have a definite purpose for issuing vouchers, if for bailout, giving cash was most effective; for revitalization, use of time and items should be set up from the very start, afterwards changes could be made. Now suddenly decided to issue five-time voucher universally was simply “messed up”.
Chairman Yu Ing-lung of the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation stated that the five-time stimulus voucher was a major policy of Premier Su's cabinet. But now, the core policy of having the people each pay NT$1,000 to exchange for the vouchers has been abandoned, a frustration to Su's political will. Yu stated that public opinion was hardly a factor in the Tsai administration's decision-making. Unable to stand the large-scale decline in popular support, the Tsai administration nonetheless decided to respond to public opinion at a "non-election" time. This is excellent political science textbook material.
Legislator Chen Yu-chen, the secretary-general of the Kuomintang caucus of the Legislative yuan, analyzed that if the Tsai-Su relation were close enough, President Tsai wouldn’t intervene after meeting with Tsai faction legislators. The rift between both was a tip of the iceberg. What was even worthier of vigilance, the Tsai faction legislators bypassing Su to meet with Tsai highlighted that executive yuan was no longer listening to general voice of people and the dissatisfaction inside DPP over Su had accumulated to a certain degree.
On August 16, the Executive Yuan finalized the five-time voucher policy: no payment of NT$1,000, all citizens are to receive and no name change of the voucher.
From:
https://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20210814000357-260102?chdtv