Yiin's blunder reflects poor decision-making process

Both Su Huan-jih, the county magistrate of Tainan, and Yeh Yi-tsin, a legislator of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), blasted the MOEA for discriminating against native Taiwanese in general and the Tainanese in particular and deliberately provoking ethnic conflicts.

Teng Cheng-chung, a MOEA vice minister, pointed out that the cartoon was made in the hope of using a more lively way to publicize the ECFA absolutely with no intention of implying ethnic discrimination. Besides, Teng stressed, Yiin himself hails from Tainan. Upon carefully looking at the comic which depicts a dolt, believed to be a native of Tainan, who speaks Mandarin with a heavy Hoklo accent, being enlightened by a female smart aleck about the merits of the ECFA, any person with a slight understanding of the present cultural climate in Taiwan cannot but share the indignant sentiments of Su and Yeh. This was definitely not the first time that Yiin caused serious trouble to the Ma Ying-jeou administration. Nor was his first public apology for his blunder. In fact, the gaffe by itself was not a particularly grave one, but it was certainly an incredibly stupid one, so much so that it should not have deserved any kind of public discussion. But, remember, small things do build up to create a stereotyped image that can help or hurt an individual or a government in a significant manner.

The repeated misbehavior of Yiin may candidly reflect a pattern of the policy-making process of the Ma administration, an important source of headache for Ma.

First, policy-makers are so arrogant and self-confident that they often make decisions alone or only with a small group of confidants. But, actually many of these people are “dolts” with little knowledge or common sense.

Secondly, most of their subordinates or advisers strikingly resemble them in terms of personality, education, ideology and even moral values with the result that it is easy for them to arrive at unanimous or near-unanimous conclusions on various issues.

Thirdly, most of their team members are nice guys or “goody-goodies” who hate to offend others, particularly their superiors, by voicing different opinions.

Fourthly, they belong to a group of strongly career-oriented people who cherish their present hard-earned positions so much that they do not want to do anything that might hurt their present status.

Therefore, very often they know what's wrong with the decisions but choose to adopt an attitude of trying to protect themselves, believing that “the more one does, the greater the chances that one may err,” which in turn may damage their public relations considered extremely important in climbing the political ladder in Chinese bureaucracy.

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