Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) repeatedly has shown a proactive attitude toward promoting domestic reforms. It is hoped, however, that he will give the most careful consideration to policy decisions.

Chen has appointed Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) as convener of the new advisory committee on science and technology. What's more, he has agreed that the committee should be established in the model of the National Unification Council (NUC, 國統會). Chen has thus made important policy without consulting leaders in science and technology.

This is a sign of disrespect toward professionals and seriously hinders the existing administrative system. It also violates the Presidential Office Organization Law (總統府組織法). (In Taiwan's system, the premier is directly answerable to the president, who therefore should speak to the premier instead of meddling in the Executive Yuan's business by delegating to ministers and other Cabinet officials.)

Unable to resolve the controversy over the vice president's powers and responsibilities, Chen has aggravated the problem by appointing Lu convener of a temporary committee. Lu recently took a glittering second "science and technology tour" in the company of captains of industry like Morris Chang (張忠謀) and senior government officials like Tsay Ching-yen (蔡清彥). When asked by reporters during the tour about the relationship between her committee and the Executive Yuan's quite separate technology consulting team, Lu said that Tsay (who is also the convener of that team) was also present. Lu simply did not realize that it was beyond her remit to directly ask a Cabinet official to accompany her.

During the first "science and technology tour," Lu even asked the chairman of the National Science Council of the Executive Yuan (行政院國家科學委員會) to accompany her. Indeed, the Vice President seems to be in the dark about her proper role. Asking Cabinet officials to accompany her and presenting herself as the highest-level leader on science and technology policy, Lu has seriously exceeded her authority. Suppose the Presidential Office set up another national policy consulting committee, would she ask the Premier to accompany her on her inspection tour?

Lu once created an uproar by hosting a banquet for Cabinet officials. Now she has openly asked Cabinet officials to escort her -- behavior which is even more inappropriate and must cease immediately. The Cabinet itself already has its National Science Council to make policy on science and technology.

Moreover, the Executive Yuan has set up an additional consulting team on science and technology. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Academia Sinica are all involved in the development of science and technology. Given all this, the Presidential Office's advisory committee on science and technology seems totally inappropriate. The committee will be vacuous and meaningless if its lacks the power to act.

If, however, it was set up as a genuine working committee, then it will definitely jeopardize the entire system of administration of science and technology.

None of the 19 articles in the Presidential Office Organization Law empower the president to set up committees under his office. Chen himself has questioned the legal basis of the NUC in light of the regulations governing it. Setting up yet another technology committee that may further jeopardize the governing process clearly shows a lack of discretion.

The cross-strait affairs task force led by Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) has already commenced work, but two major opposition parties continue to boycott it. Under these circumstances, whatever consensus the task force manages to reach will be meaningless.

Perhaps this political impasse can be resolved by dissolving both the NUC and the task force, and shelving the Guidelines for National Unification (國統綱領) on a sacrificial altar. Then Chen will not be dogged by the NUC chairmanship issue and Lee will be freed from his current travails.

As for Vice President Lu, she is obviously unfit to lead either the human rights advisory team or the science and technology consulting committee. First of all, a human rights organization should not be headed by a government official. The fact that Lu was a victim of past human rights abuses does not necessarily mean she has a good understanding of human rights.

The fact that Lu is unfit to head the science and technology committee is also crystal clear. Her remark that only her committee is a real cross-party committee not only undermines the cross-strait task force, it also shows that Lu is not competent to head the committee. All in all, the Presidential Office should abolish these four illegal organizations as soon as possible and adhere to existing organizational regulations.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Office should also seriously consider revising the functions and methods of appointing presidential advisors (總統府資政) and national policy advisors (國策顧問). So far they have failed to be effective because the new government has continued with the habits of its predecessor -- granting positions out of political favor.

Careful revision on Chen's part of the niceties of co-ordinating the finer points of governance at the upper echelons should see positive results.

Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology and a professor of sociology at National Taiwan University.

Translated by Francis Huang.