Reshuffling the Cabinet is not enough

First, the flood waters washed away the nearby soil, eroding the buffer zone between it and the roaring river.

In what almost feels like a fraction of a second, the six-story building then collapsed with a huge splash into a devouring force of nature at its worst, in front of thousands of unbelieving eyes.

In many ways the near-collapse of the credibility of President Ma Ying-jeou's administration unfolded in similarly sudden and jaw-dropping fashion.

The administration's slow responses, huge detachment from the reality of the situation and a series of unbelievably incompetent decisions (such as refusing foreign aid) triggered a flood of public anger and denunciations that were set to topple Ma's Cabinet and severely damaged his standing.

However, the reshuffling of the Cabinet, or the resignation of any government official, should not be the end of the lessons learnt by Taiwan from the tragedies brought by Morakot.

There is no doubt that the government has failed to protect its people from Morakot both in terms of disaster prevention and emergency response. Heads have to roll. But the buck should not only stop with a few officials.

Just as the collapse of the Jinshuai Hotel had unearthed a village buried 37 years ago, the spectacular failure of the government's leadership in response to the Aug. 8 flood revealed problems that run deeper and longer than an incompetent government.

The biggest tragedy of the Morakot Flood is that many of the devastations and causalities are the result of Taiwan's long-time negligence of land preservation. The National Land Planning Act, the island's main regulations on land use, is still in its drafting stage after 14 years due in part to political pressure from a different interest groups.

James Wang, a professor at the National Taiwan Normal University, pointed out that earthquakes and over-development have turned Taiwan's land into “an infirm 80-year-old.”

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