◎ Guo Suo
As early as the Baolin Teahouse incident, the Chiang City government had stated that it was necessary to prevent businesses from going out of business, but now it is asking the outside world to "give the city government one month" to review relevant regulations and speed up administrative procedures. (File photo) The food poisoning case at Baolin Teahouse resulted in the death of six people. This was already one of the most serious food safety incidents in Taipei City in recent years. Now, more than two years after the incident, the outside world has further discovered that the multi-million-dollar administrative fine issued by the city government to the operator has been difficult to recover due to subsequent enforcement and asset issues of the operator. What’s even more ridiculous is that as early as the beginning of the case, Jiang Wanan’s city government had publicly talked about the need to prevent businesses from going out of business. Now Jiang Wanan is asking the outside world to “give the city government a month” to review relevant regulations and speed up administrative procedures. The problem is that the Paulin case did not happen last month, but in 2024. What Taipei citizens should really ask is, since they knew there was a risk of deemployment more than two years ago, why did they only think of reviewing it today? What the citizens gave Jiang Wanan was not just a month, but a nearly full term as mayor.
What is even more disturbing is that after six lives were lost in the Baolin case, the Taipei City Government still does not seem to have truly established enough awareness of the food safety crisis to reassure citizens. Recently, a suspected food poisoning incident broke out at Chengyuan High School. According to the Education Bureau, the relevant group meal manufacturers provide meals not only to Chengyuan High School, but also to Datong High School, Dazhi High School, Neihu High School, Jingmei Middle School, Jianguo High School, Dali High School, Huajiang High School and many other schools or different academic systems. The number of students served is quite large. Faced with this kind of incident, the first thing the mayor should know is not how many cases there are in a single school, but how many campuses, how many students, which batches of ingredients are involved in the common supply source, and whether other schools need to be sampled, sealed, suspended, or prevented at the same time. The Baolin case has already taught the Taipei City Government a lesson with human life. If a large-scale group meal safety incident occurs and the city government's top brass still cannot quickly present a complete risk picture, then the people will certainly have reason to wonder, what have they learned in the past two years?
Taipei City Councilor Hong Wan-zhen said that photos of campus ingredients on the platform are repeatedly mixed. (Provided by Hong Wanzhen) Just at this time, Jiang Wanan's "political achievements" showed another absurd contrast. A few days ago, the parliament asked him to explain the results of his administration. Jiang Wanan relied on preparing materials to answer the biggest question. It is normal for the chief executive to prepare reports. What is really sad is that when "ratification improvement" can be included as an achievement worthy of publicity, reality quickly slapped the city government in the face. A professional baseball broadcast actually captured a rat running directly into the stadium. Of course, rats will not disappear from Taipei just because the mayor announces political achievements, but the reason why this scene is ironic is that it symbolizes a gap in governance: the city government is very good at announcing that problems have been improved, but citizens have discovered time and time again in reality that things do not seem to be as beautiful as the city government said. Real urban governance is not governance by briefing, let alone writing each project into the performance list, which means that the problem has been solved.
Fubon Titans and Wei Chuanlong played against each other at the Taipei Arena a few days ago. Before the game entered the 8th inning, a rat suddenly appeared in the field (in the white circle). The staff and caddies rushed to contain it with cardboard boxes. (File photo) From the six deaths of Baolin, the difficulties in enforcing administrative fines, to the food safety risks of campus groups, to claiming that the rat problem has improved while allowing fans across the country to see rats running into the stadium on the broadcast screen, what really connects these events is the same question: Does Jiang Wanan have the ability to control the city he governs? No one requires a mayor to personally catch rats, inspect lunch boxes, and collect every ticket personally. However, the mayor’s responsibility is to establish an administrative system that can provide early warning, response, tracking, and accountability, instead of saying that he needs to review every time a problem is exposed. Since taking office at the end of 2022, Jiang Wanan has already passed the so-called running-in period as a novice mayor. There is no permanent novice protection period in democratic politics. If nearly four years are not enough for voters to clearly see a mayor's governance ability, then the next vote will still only be based on image, family background and political packaging. If administrative failure occurs in the future, I am afraid it can only be said that voters must bear the consequences of their choices.
From the six deaths of Baolin, the difficulties in enforcing administrative fines, the safety risks of campus group meals, and the improvement of rat infestations, these incidents actually point to the same question: Does Jiang Wanan have the ability to control the city he governs? (File photo)
(The author is a freelance reviewer)
