Taiwan seems stuck with a problem propaganda chief.
It’s bad news, of course.But good news is that Shieh Jhy-weu, who calls himself minister with a portfolio for the Government Information Office, would last as long as President Chen Shui-bian, who has to step down on May 20 next year.
The GIO head used to be known as “director-general,” for he was not given a seat in the Executive Yuan Council, where all its members, with or without portfolios, are Cabinet ministers.If he wants to style himself as minister, Shieh has to be admitted to that council, of which Premier Chang Chun-hsiung is the chairman.Titles matter in Taiwan.
Almost immediately after he had assumed office in the summer, Shieh began broaching a grandiose plan to set up a worldwide television network to promote the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s cause of Taiwan’s metamorphosis into a “normal country.”The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan doesn’t approve of a waste of money for another government white elephant.Who cares to watch propaganda stuff from Taiwan?That ambitious plan won’t materialize.
Undaunted, the GIO chief has turned to dedicate himself to President Chen’s campaign to get Taiwan into the United Nations under its name.
As a starter, Shieh is said to have required government agencies to chip in more than NT$77 million (US$2.4 million) to finance the propaganda.When questioned on the floor of the nation’s highest legislative organ, he denied that allegation, insisting that the GIO has never used “a penny” from any agency, except the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for that purpose.No balance sheet on the futile propaganda drive was produced, however.
Now Shieh is organizing another propaganda drive to champion that cause.His GIO will provide publicity stuff for an island-wide marathon torch relay the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports sponsors to rally support for Taiwan’s admission to the United Nations as Taiwan.Well, it’s a bit too late.The UN General Assembly debated the question on October 3.Only four of Taipei’s diplomatic allies had their representatives speak in favor of Taiwan at the debate, after which a vote was taken, and President Chen’s UN bid was rejected overwhelmingly outright, as had been expected.Taiwan maintains diplomatic relations with only 24 out of more than 180 UN member states.And not all the allies voted for Taiwan.
To Shieh, however, it may not be too late.Perhaps, the torch relay is a warm-up for another call by the ruling party, of which President Chen now doubles as chairman, for a referendum on Taiwan’s accession to the United Nations under its name.Chen wants to hold the referendum alongside the legislative elections scheduled for January 22 next year.Should it fail to take place that early, it would be called at the same time with the presidential election on March 12, the ultimate purpose of the ruling party to hold the referendum being just to get its standard bearer Frank Hsieh elected.The GIO, as its name suggests, has no business helping a political party achieve its purely political purpose.
Shieh’s problem is that he doesn’t know he heads an anachronistic government agency.The GIO, created by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to promote the cause of his Free China, should have long passed into history.President Lee Teng-hui, known at one time as Mr. Democracy, should have abolished it.A government propaganda arm is needed only in totalitarian or autocratic countries.The U.S. News Agency was founded in Washington to champion the cause of freedom but was deactivated as soon as the Cold War was over.The GIO should bow out at the latest when the National Communications Commission came into being last year.As the NCC took over most of its business, the GIO lost the last trace of the raison d’etre for its undeservedly prolonged survival.
Worse still, Shieh who casts himself in the role of an image-maker for the government is acting more like a censor.He is accusing the China Times of publishing biased reports against the administration.The mass-circulation Chinese-language daily in Taipei ran a series titled “Taiwan’s Hope for 2008” earlier this month, which in effect was an expose of government corruption.In a number of articles, the paper charged the government with stealing from the national treasury “to the last penny.”One piece of proof provided is the financial loss resulting from the suspension of work on Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant in 2000, which was estimated at somewhere between NT$279 billion (US$8.7 billion) and NT$400 billion (US$12.1 billion).
The GIO chief took a China Times reporter to task at a press conference, calling the paper “a propaganda sheet of another political party.”He followed it up with placing a full-page advertisement in at least three leading papers in an item-by-item rebuttal.The advertising was paid for by the taxpayers.But he defended himself by stating it is the job of the GIO to “safeguard” the image of the government and he was justified for spending the taxpayers’ money for the advertising.Moreover, he chided the China Times for failure to double-check with the GIO or other government agencies before publishing the stories.That is censorship.
Media have duties to double-check sources of news.But they enjoy perfect freedom to publish whatever news is available once its sources are confirmed, albeit they have to take into consideration whether it would encroach on privacy, compromise national security or violate the obscenity law.To require reporters to double-check their stories with the GIO is to interfere with freedom of the press.Nobody expects that of the GIO chief.
As a matter of fact, President Chen has given Shieh a wrong job.Shieh will be an ideal propaganda chief for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.The only drawback is that the party cannot afford to fund all the propaganda campaigns he plans for the GIO to promote its partisan causes.
（本文刊載於96.10.15 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）
