I'm beginning to realize that the resistance to change in Taiwan comes from the legacy system within government agencies, and their inability to engage the public. With the electronic identification card, advocates have criticized the government for brushing off their concerns...

... With the setting up of the digital ministry, @scheeinfo has highlighted how no consultation was conducted with the public at all. Even with the setting up of the English language news channel, @shu_wang_gong has pointed out how the government has been heavy-handed ...

... Even in the Science and Technology Conference I recently attended, audience members were vocal about how the government needs to change its economic model, diversify the industries, and loosen up regulations, and this came from not just academics but businesses as well ...

... I was surprised that when I raised the issue of how wages need to be higher and how university education needs reform, heads were nodding and there were murmurs, even from business leaders (I know because they spoke before me). Even from the workshops @RSPRCTaiwan conducted,

... participants from NGOs and businesses were able to come to a consensus on the need for database regulations to guide Taiwan's digital development. From what I've been hearing, there seems to be general agreement that Taiwan needs to transform, and it even seems as if ...

... the general Taiwanese public are begging the government to change. So, exactly which are these lobbying groups that are buying over the government and preventing change from happening? Large industries in the semiconductor and petrochemical sectors? I'm genuinely asking ...

... because it seems to be the Taiwanese society and many startups and small businesses even are ready for change, for regulations to loosen up to enable them to have greater competition, to be able to use digitalization to compete, and to boost the talent in Taiwan ...

... What I can think of is that politicians need to wean off the lobbying of big companies dragging Taiwan's development behind. And the other is, they need to learn to engage and listen. The electronic identification card was proposed in 2016, and yet it remains controversial...

... All the issues highlighted could surely have been discussed and ironed out in the last 4 years. Thus it seems that government reforms are desperately needed in Taiwan. While Taiwan as a nation has become a democracy, its government agencies are still held back by legacy ...

... systems. Does the hiring of civil servants need to change? Does it need to be more competitive? Should it be an iron rice bowl, if this hinders governance transformation? Should capacity building be conducted regularly to teach civil servants how to engage with the public,...

... and to learn to collate their feedback for policy development? When I asked our workshop facilitator trainer how many of the participatory workshops she has done with the government actually resulted in policy changes, she said there were very few ...

... But there are among the government people like Digital Minister @audreyt who has spearheaded many digital initiatives to encourage participation from the public very successfully. Why has the rest of the government not adopted similar participatory tools on a wide scale? ...

... Should the need for governance reforms come from the top, at the level of President @iingwen or Premier @eballgogogo, to rejuvenate the government systems? Sure, there are 大老 within the government agencies that make it difficult for change, but how can we empower ...

... younger civil servants to disrupt the systems, to bring about the much needed change in government? The way I'm seeing it, many Taiwanese even businesses recognize the need for Taiwan to urgently transform. Some of them know how, some do not, and want government assistance...

... But the government itself is held back by its own stagnation to be able to move flexibly enough. And while it has been the case to blame businesses for resisting change, I think the onus is also on the government and its resistance. At the ministry conference I attended ...

... recently, I was tempted to raise the issue that government agencies need to reflect on their role to better engage and communicate with the public. I've already raised the issue to the education ministry at the same forum that some postdoctoral researchers have seen ...

... their salaries being taken away by their professors and received a strong rebuttal and a look of disdain from the public official. Also, how can the government better change its consultation mechanisms? At the recent Science and Technology Conference, I was surprised that ...

... the ministry's method of consultation is to share its proposed strategies, seek questions and then defend themselves. That is not consultation. That is just being defensive. And at a later session to release their revised strategies, they invited speakers from other ...

... companies to give lectures and only spent 10 minutes rushing through the strategies for the various segments. How does this invite participation? At one of the first meetings I attended with a ministry, when we proposed that we will be inviting NGOs to our workshops, ...

... ministry officials were taken aback. Were they scared? While NGOs might give off the appearance that they are confrontational during protests, what if the question is that we have not developed an effective method at engaging them? What if it is the government agencies ...

... that need to change? To learn? To develop new skills? Taiwan is entering the digital age, and if it continues to function as per tradition, it will lose out. I'm always perplexed by how government officials are perplexed that members of the public are resistant ...

... to their proposals for innovations such as the electronic identification card. They say Taiwan needs to adopt it because other countries have, otherwise which Taiwan will lose out. But to adopt such innovations successfully, they need to understand that people's concerns ...

... can help them develop better systems. They need to listen. I think someone needs to take the lead on reforming the government sector, I don't know who, maybe @iingwen, @eballgogogo or @audreyt. Otherwise, Taiwan keeps facing roadblocks because it doesn't know how to consult.

Here's further elaboration on @kerim's thread on how Taiwan's governance structure has yet to democratize in the education sector, and how the rigidities are preventing Taiwan from undergoing the transformation it urgently needs. https://twitter.com/kerim/status/1342713717289439233?s=19