Man-in-the-Pub politics

There is a certain type of individual, known in the UK as ‘The Man in the Pub’

Loud, arrogant and none too bright, they happily broadcast their ill thought out views to anyone who will listen. In the UK they tend to mostly inhabit Public Houses (Bars), are generally fairly radical in their views, not particularly understanding of others, and not sensitive or sympathetic to other viewpoints. 

It can just as easily be a woman, and it is highly likely you know such a person. In fact, I’m guessing you are thinking of someone fitting this description right now. 

The other thing they are very good at is unthinking criticism. Sadly, the opposition politicians in Taiwan seem to fit the profile of Man-in-the-Pub very well indeed, which is sad because any democracy needs an effective and intelligent opposition to keep the Administration on its toes and the country running well. 

There has been a litany of attacks on the Government, and in particular the Health Minister which, frankly, have been on a level that would shame a 1st Grade school debating society. 

I cringe with embarrassment when long-standing members of parliament can’t do better than sniping from the sidelines with questions and statements like.. “AstraZeneca is dangerous”...”The government paid too much for AstraZeneca”...”The government did not buy early enough.” How do such simplistic questions and statements help the country? What happened to constructive criticism, or proactive suggestions? Clearly those who say such things think they are not part of the democratic process and only there to take pot-shots at the government and attempt to score cheap political points.

Or not, as most of these attacks tend to be treated with the contempt they deserve.  

Which is very sad as opposition parties are terribly important to a functioning democracy and these snipers are not doing Taiwan’s greater good any favours by remaining stuck in their bubble of party politics and ignoring the realities. It’s an insult to the people who voted for them that they are too lazy to think of anything more sensible to contribute other than pointless questions which are banal and contribute nothing.

It is Brain Fart Politics…”Oh I need to attack the Government because I’m an opposition MP...er, er, I know… Why didn’t Japan send more vaccines?....(Phew). So when you invite your neighbour round for dinner and they bring you flowers and chocolates as a gift, you ask them why they didn’t bring a bottle of champagne as well? 

Why not put the Government on the spot with a more sensible question. “We the opposition support the acquisition of vaccines from Japan and would like to ask the Government what they are doing to secure more vaccines in the coming months?”    

But the politicization of Covid appears to know no bounds. 

Healthcare should be largely outside of party politics, much like education. The health and education of the people are paramount issues, correct? Broadly speaking everyone should be pulling together to achieve the best result and put aside political point-scoring and stop wasting precious time with  ridiculous theatrics in Parliament on such issues. Particularly at a time of national emergency.       

At least the UK and US seem to be trying hard to avoid their political differences and there is at least a sense of bipartisanship over Covid and what is probably their greatest threat since World War Two.

Many other countries have also seen the political divide narrow over the Covid issue as they work hard to do the best for their populations...Not in Taiwan, apparently.

After weeks of, frankly, idiotic questions and attacks on the Health Minister by the opposition in Parliament, comes an admission by the Deputy Taipei City Mayor that she is not picking up his calls, despite the fact she is supposed to be the Deputy Commander for Taipei for dealing with virus and attends daily meetings at the Ministry. 

At the zenith of the effort to deal with the pandemic, the rollout of the vaccine, and at a time other cities around the country are, as I write, lining people up and sticking needles in their arms, Taipei City has yet to get its act together.

She, and I'll say it again...Is Not Picking Up Her Phone to the Minister for Health. To then boast about it on Facebook is breathtakingly arrogant and a slap in the face to the people she is there to represent. 

To my mind, that is almost criminal dereliction of public duty and displays an utter contempt of the people of Taipei she is supposed to protect and serve. 

I'm sure the oath of office she swore would have said she promised to do both. Instead she plays childish political games and, much like her boss, blames the Central Government for her own local failings.

Her boss seems to believe other Cities are doing better than Taipei because of “Insider Trading” which is not only a meaningless and weak metaphor, but displays a victim complex only surpassed by his inadequacy and ability to deal with the situation. 

Taiwan has thus far weathered the Covid storm extremely well, just compare the statistics to most other countries around the world, and is in fact in the upper echelons of a select group of countries who have dealt with the crisis efficiently and effectively.

It is noticeable how in many countries there is more of a sense of common purpose and members of opposing political parties are not at daggers’ drawn over Covid but are adopting a more bipartisan stance towards the crisis. They are at each other’s throats over other things like the last election in the US or Brexit in the UK, but in terms of the healthcare dilemma there is a more palpable sense of pulling together for the common good.

You also see proactive suggestions by opposition parties that appear lacking in Taiwan. Britain’s main opposition party Labour, for example, was pressing the UK Government to implement greater restrictions and testing at airports last September summer when Covid cases started to accelerate and stood at around 6,000 a day. 

Cases peaked around 60,000 per day four months later so a thoughtful opposition party backed by apparently good analysis of the situation was ignored. Johnson’s ruling Conservatives are broadly thought to have done a bad job on Covid and it has affected their popularity. Come the next election, voters will remember this kind of thing and this is how you win elections, by being smart and demonstrating that you could have done a better job. 

Maybe the apparently daft opposition questions here happen because the Government has been doing a fantastic job in controlling Covid, and continues to do so by any international measure. Or, just as likely, the caliber of opposition members is just not that good and they are just not capable of doing better analysis for themselves before opening their mouths.

An excellent cartoon doing the rounds on Facebook was pointed out to me yesterday. It shows the Health Minister shoulding a huge backpack leading a group of the country’s Mayors away from a huge snarling Covid bug with New Taipei City and Taipei City sitting, or languishing on the ground bringing up the rear.

It very much summed up my perception of the situation, with some Members of Parliament and local leaders waiting for the Government to do everything, criticizing them at every turn and complaining, but not doing very much to help.         

The US and UK are, of course, more mature democracies and you have to wonder whether the KMT at least is so used to being in power for the bulk of the time since 1949 they just don’t know how to be an effective opposition.

That really has to change and any opposition party in Taiwan has to learn to come up with more constructive criticism of the administration if democracy is to flourish and they stand a better chance of regaining power. At the end of the day, that is their ultimate goal.

Opposition MPs, and others would do well to accept that fact, have a little sense of bipartisanship in a time of national crisis and, please, think before they speak or criticise. It is necessary to think and be creative and constructive if you want to be an effective opposition, sadly there is not a huge amount of evidence there is much of that going on, in Taiwan at least. 

有一種人，在英國被稱為「酒吧裡的人」(Man in the Pub)。

他們說話大聲、態度傲慢而且通常不太聰明，只要有人願意聽，他們就會愉快地向任何人滔滔不絕傳播他們未經深思熟慮的觀點。他們大多住在公共場所，在英國就是整天泡在酒吧裡的意思。他們的意見通常相當極端，對他人的看法不是特別了解，對與自己不同的觀點既不敏感也不同理。

這種人男女皆有，而且你很可能就認識一個，事實上我猜你現在正在想：「對，我認識的人裡面，就有幾個符合這種描述！」。

這些人非常擅長的另一件事是不假思索的批評，可悲的是，不少台灣的反對黨政治人物似乎也符合「酒吧裡的人」的形象。這真是令人傷心，因為任何民主都需要有效和聰明的反對黨，他們的作用是讓政府保持警惕進而維持國家良好運行。

住在台灣一年多以來，我觀察在疫情中一連串對政府的攻擊，特別是針對衛福部長，坦率地說，那種程度足以讓一年級辯論社蒙羞。一些反對黨和他們的國會議員提出的批評，幾乎讓我打哆嗦，例如「AZ疫苗很危險」，「政府買疫苗買貴了」，「政府沒有早點買疫苗」。

這些簡單的陳述對國家有什麼幫助？ 他們是怎麼了完全無法提出有建設性的批評？ 說這些話的人顯然不認為他們是民主進程的一部分，他們只是在進行無意義的抨擊並試圖獲得政治紅利。但他們不會得分，因為此類攻擊終究會得到他們應有的蔑視。

這是非常可悲的，因為反對黨對民主運作非常重要，而這些反對陣營的狙擊手卻停留在政黨政治的泡泡中，他們無視現實，沒有為台灣帶來更大的好處。 對投票給他們的人來說這是一種侮辱，彷彿他們連想出任何稍稍合理的貢獻都懶，他們的質疑極端平庸且毫無貢獻。

用英文來說這是大腦放屁政治 (Brain Fart Politics)：「哦，現在我需要攻擊政府，因為我是反對黨議員……呃，呃，我知道了！為什麼日本不給台灣更多疫苗？」，然後他們鬆了一口氣，因為終於問了個問題。

他們可以用比較聰明的問法來讓政府當場回應：「作為反對黨我們歡迎從日本來的疫苗，但是我們要政府告訴我們在未來一個月，有什麼具體措施來確保我們會得到更多疫苗。」

醫療保健應該在很大程度上脫離黨派政治，就像教育一樣。人民的健康和教育是最重要的，對嗎？ 廣義而言每個人都應該齊心協力，在這兩方面取得最佳結果，並在此類問題上將政治紅利和議會中的荒謬劇擱置一旁，特別是在國家面臨緊急狀態的時候。

至少英國和美國似乎正在努力避免他們的政治分歧，並且在對抗病毒上存在兩黨合作的感覺，因為新冠疫情可能是他們自第二次世界大戰以來最大的危機。在許多其他國家我也看到政治分歧在此議題上縮小，因為他們努力為本國人民做到最好，但在台灣似乎不是如此。

在反對黨對衛福部長進行了數週提問和攻擊之後，老實說那些問題通常很愚蠢，台北市副市長承認她沒有接聽國家總指揮官的電話，儘管她擔任台北市疫情副指揮官， 也出席在衛福部舉行的每日疫情會議。

就在我寫這篇文章的同一時刻，為了抵抗傳染病大流行，全世界都竭盡所能開始施打疫苗，台灣人也開始排隊等著在他們手臂上扎一針，但是台北市比其他城市晚了一步。

她，我再說一遍，她沒有接衛福部長給她的電話，然後在臉書上吹噓。這是令人嘆為觀止的傲慢，幾乎像是一記耳光打在她代表的人民臉上。在我看來，這相當於瀆職罪，是對她應該保護和服務的台北人民的極度蔑視。

我敢肯定，她宣誓就職時承諾會做好保護和服務市民的工作。但是相反地，她玩著幼稚的政治遊戲，就像她的老闆一樣，將自己在當地的失敗歸咎於中央政府。她的老闆似乎認為其他城市比台北做得更好是因為「內線交易」，這不僅是一個毫無意義和薄弱的比喻，而且沒有什麼能夠超越他的受害者情結了，除了他無法應對的能力。

至少到目前為止，台灣已經非常不錯地度過了新冠病毒風暴，只要用統計數據與世界比較，就可以發現台灣在有效應對病毒危機的國家中，仍然處於上層。

然而值得注意的是，疫情中許多國家的共同目標感越來越強，對立政黨的成員沒有對病毒抱有僥倖心理，而是對危機採取了異於過往的兩黨合作立場。敵對政黨在美國總統大選或英國脫歐等議題上進行無情的割喉戰，而一旦面臨醫療保健困境，為了共同利益而團結起來的感覺是很明顯的。但是台灣的反對黨除了不停反對，似乎缺乏具體積極的建議。

看看我的母國，主要反對黨工黨在去年 9 月向英國政府施壓，提出在機場實施更大限制和檢測的政策，但是很可惜並沒有被採納，當時陽性病例已經達到每天 6,000 例左右。四個月後，病例達到每天約 60,000 起的高峰。雖然在當時這個建議被忽略了，但是反對黨確實提出一個做過很好的分析，並且深思熟慮的建議。這不同於台灣反對黨在零星幾個病例出現，就要求全面篩檢。

人們普遍認為英國首相強生的保守黨在控制新冠病毒方面做得很差，這影響了該黨的聲望，下次選舉時，選民會記住這種事情。贏得選舉的方式，是運用智慧證明你可以做得更好。

也許台灣反對黨提出顯而易見的愚蠢問題，是因為去年政府在防堵病毒方面做得非常出色，並且以任何國際標準來看，現在還是繼續這樣進行。 或者，另一個可能性是反對黨成員的素質並不那麼好，他們只是單純無法在開口之前深思熟慮。

昨天我的台灣妻子給我看了在臉書上流傳的一則諷刺漫畫，裡面衛福部帶領一群地方縣市長，費力用繩索拉著台灣遠離巨大咆哮的新冠病毒，但是新北市和台北市的市長坐在後方，甚至漫不經心懶懶洋洋。

這個漫畫呼應我對一些國會議員和地方首長的認知，他們等著中央政府做所有的工作，並且動輒批評抱怨，沒有對現況做出太大的幫助。

和台灣相比，美國和英國當然是更成熟的民主國家，但你不得不懷疑國民黨是否太習慣於自 1949 年以來的長時期掌權，他們或許只是不知道如何當一個有效的反對黨。這個情形得改變，民主蓬勃發展會讓反對黨有更好的機會執政，任何反對黨都必須學會對政府提出具建設性的批評和建議。歸根結底，執政是他們的最終目標。

反對陣營如果能接受在國家面臨危機時有點兩黨合作精神這個想法，那麼他們一定能做得比現在好，而且重要的是請在開口說話或批評之前三思。如果想成為一個有效率的反對者，就需要思考、有創造性和建設性，遺憾的是我沒有看見大量證據，讓我感覺這種情況正在台灣發生。