The new mayors will take charge of administrative entities promoted to special municipality Dec. 25: Xinbei City is an upgrade of Taipei County; Taichung City is being enlarged to encompass the county; Tainan City merges the current city and county of Tainan; and Kaohsiung County will be joined to Kaohsiung City, already a special municipality. These four will join Taipei City in the ranks of the country’s favored administrative units, coming directly under the central government.
The reform of Taiwan’s administrative system was long overdue, according to Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah. “After Taipei became a special municipal city in 1967 and Kaohsiung in 1979, there had been no major change to the nation’s administrative system,” he said at a recent seminar in Kaohsiung City.
The purpose of the change is to help the country better meet the challenges of globalization by creating cities that are more flexible and capable of standing out in the context of dynamic internationalism. The change is expected to result in greater government efficiency and improved coordination of resources.
The five megacities will have 68 percent of Taiwan’s total population and share 61 percent of centrally allocated tax revenues. With more resources, they are expected to become “locomotives” boosting the development of their regions.
The special municipalities’ elevated position also grants their mayors more say in national policymaking, since they are obligated to take part in the weekly Executive Yuan meeting. In general, their city governments will have greater freedom in managing their personnel, administrative and fiscal affairs.
Yet the mergers and upgrades, approved by the Executive Yuan in July 2009, have been criticized in some quarters as rash.
There was no national consensus before the policy was made on how such upgrades and mergers could enhance regional development and local-level democracy, critics said. Detailed plans for national land use and fiscal matters have been lacking, as have measures to guarantee balanced development. Discussions of these tough issues were also absent during the election campaigns.
Tseng Chien-yun, associate professor in the Department of Public Administration at Hsinchu-based Chung Hua University, who has written abundantly on the matter, spelled out the situation in an interview Dec. 3.
Tseng began by questioning the rationale behind the design of the five megacities at a level above regular cities and counties. The major concern is that the country will thus be divided into two worlds, rich municipalities and poor counties.
He said the change is different from the initial proposal made by President Ma Ying-jeou when he was a presidential candidate. “The original idea was to create three special municipalities, one each in northern, central and southern Taiwan, that would then coordinate with the remaining 15 counties in boosting Taiwan’s overall development.”
“The design of three special municipalities as centers for regional development makes sense,” he said, noting scholars brought this idea up as early as 1994. Former President Chen Shui-bian also adopted it in his platform when running for office.
Under that plan, policymakers saw Taipei City, merged with Taipei County, with airports, harbors and high-speed rail, solidifying its position as the country’s political and economic center and a global trade hub. Taichung City would be the juncture for cross-strait trading, while Kaohsiung City would be an outpost of economic exchange with Southeast Asia.
However, the restructuring eventually expanded in scope to include five special municipalities and the remaining 17 smaller cities and counties. The result, Tseng said, represents the Ma administration’s succumbing to political pressures during the reform process.
Scholars agree that the whole idea of creating special municipalities dates from the government’s tenure in mainland China, with its vast area. When applied to the smaller territory in Taiwan, it risks distorting the distribution of fiscal and human resources in favor of the megacities.
The Local Government Act allows regions with a population of at least 1.25 million that have “special requirements for their political, economic and cultural development” to be upgraded to special municipalities. A county is also treated as a provisional special municipality when its population surpasses 2 million, which is the case with Taoyuan County now.
Under this arrangement, Tseng said, counties and cities have jockeyed for position to gain special municipality status, eyeing first of all the supposedly greater power and money.
“With the change in the system, the worst scenario is that the five big cities dominate resources, while people in the cities and counties outside the club are relegated to the role of second-class citizens,” he pointed out.
The problem could become worse, in that fiscal deficits are already headaches for the central and municipal governments. “With limited overall revenues, the upgrades might just compromise any well-intentioned effort toward a fair redistribution of resources,” he said.
In addition, supplementary legislation is still not ready, though the Local Government Act, which provides the legal basis for upgrades, was passed in May 2009. The Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, which was supposed to have been amended within three months of the passage of the revised LGA, remains under review in the Legislature. Moreover, the draft Administrative Division Act, which stipulates the rights and responsibilities of local governments, has only passed first reading.
But the popular vote has been counted, and the five special municipalities are a reality. Leaders must now embrace a greater vision and demonstrate commitment to making up for the inadequacies of the restructuring, Tseng said.
The task of the mayors involves forming both competitive and collaborative relationships with the central government, one another and adjacent counties.
First, Tseng said, the central government must enact new amendments to related laws ensuring the fair distribution of tax revenues to special municipalities and other counties and cities.
“This will not be easy, because legislators elected from the five big cities may tend to serve only their own constituents,” Tseng said. “But the central government, no matter which party is in power, will have to be very firm in lobbying for programs that benefit all.”
The national government will also need to take responsibility for designing measures to encourage collaborative projects that will generate more revenues.
In this respect, “both the central and local governments must consider clearly how the five big cities can both divide resources and cooperate on development so that resources won’t be misplaced and maximum performance be achieved,” the professor said.
Xinbei and Tainan cities, for example, have no international airports or harbors, but Xinbei is noted for its multiculturalism, while Tainan has many historic attractions. These two special municipalities require specific types of cooperation with neighboring areas, and should be developed in ways different from Taipei, Taichung and Kaihsiung, Tseng said.
Last but not least, there is worry about how the democratic spirit of local government will be maintained in smaller administrative units under the jurisdiction of the special municipalities. In Tainan, for example, there are 33 elected heads of smaller units. After the upgrade, there will be only one elected mayor, and formerly elected positions at lower levels will be filled by civil servants.
Tseng thus urged that the Local Government Act be relaxed to allow self-governing entities to be formed within communities with special characteristics.
This is especially necessary for Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung cities, as they have significant rural populations, some in remote areas. “There should be variations in administrative structure and management to fit these rural areas, with their very different geographical, historical, political and economic characteristics.”
Of particular note is the situation in Xinbei and Kaohsiung. Some aboriginal townships and villages will be converted to districts, with no elected representatives. Prior to the elections, spokesmen for aboriginal communities in both areas, as well as rights activists, made repeated appeals to the Executive Yuan for the maintenance of autonomy for their townships.
In conclusion, Tseng said, a democratic governance routine for policymaking and implementation must be established within different levels of administrative bodies, among local governments, as well as between the central government and the special municipalities.
The administrative efficiency, development benefits and competitiveness the large-scale structural change was designed for can only be guaranteed through deliberation, persuasion and consensus building.
Tseng urged national leaders and special municipality mayors to work toward this goal. Their guiding principal, he said, should be that “all citizens, rural and urban, receive equal treatment from the state.” (THN)
Write to June Tsai at june@mail.gio.gov.tw