If I remember correctly, the KMT spent much of last fall hammering the Chen administration for not doing more to rein in high fuel and food prices. Later, during February of this year, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou promised SUBSIDIZED fuel for Taiwanese fishermen. And it was just March 10th – eleven days before the presidential election – that KMT lawmakers DEMANDED that Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs maintain price controls on gas and utilities:
"We want [Minister of Economic Affairs] Steve Chen to declare he will continue the price freezes until after April 1," one concerned Kuomintang lawmaker said. [emphasis added]
Other legislators joined in calling on Steve Chen to keep the freeze in place until after a new president is sworn in.
Ah, how the worm turns. By March 25th, all those price freezes suddenly didn’t look so attractive to the KMT anymore. Because if those prices are unfrozen later, as they eventually must be, their newly-elected man Ma will take the heat. Much better that those prices go up NOW, so lame-duck Chen Shui-bian can shoulder all the blame:
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday defended the Cabinet’s decision to maintain a freeze on the prices of water, electricity, liquefied petroleum gas and fuel oil until the new government is inaugurated on May 20.
Chang denounced criticism from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators at a legislative question-and-answer session that the Cabinet had made the decision in order to leave an "awful mess" for the KMT following the handover.
"I cannot accept being accused of leaving an `awful mess’ behind. Amid soaring commodity prices, the difficulties that people face in making a living is the most serious problem the government needs to deal with," Chang said when approached for comment outside the legislature.
What we can see clearly here is that within a scant 14 days, the KMT went from being the enthusiastic advocate of price controls to the laissez-faire party of free-floating prices. First they demagogued the cost of living issue, frightening the Chen administration into implementing price caps. Then they bragged about how efficient former KMT dictator Chiang Ching-kuo’s price controls were back in the economic glory days of the seventies. And just a few days prior to the presidential that they insisted the government maintain price freezes – only to demand the opposite three days AFTER the election.
How fortunate for Taiwan that the KMT’s opposition to price controls is so well grounded in principles, rather than low political expediency!