Yao Zhongyuan's Perspective: Is the Lai Government Continuously Bullying Retired Military and Civil Servants?

Since 2016, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has won three consecutive presidential elections and has been in power for over ten years. If Lai Ching-te's administration continues until May 20, 2028, the DPP will create a record of a single party continuously holding power for twelve years in Taiwan's history of presidential elections. During the DPP's past ten years in power, whether under former President Tsai Ing-wen or current President Lai Ching-te, military, civil servants, and teachers have played a crucial professional role in the country. For example, soldiers have built a strong military defense line, defending Taiwan's national sovereignty and people's safety on the front lines; civil servants have delved into every corner of society, promoting national policies formulated by the DPP and providing convenient and high-quality public services; and teachers have quietly cultivated the education field, imparting knowledge and nurturing the future pillars of the nation. These three professions of military, civil servants, and teachers transcend party lines and administrative neutrality, each performing their duties and closely interlocked, not only maintaining the order and efficiency of Taiwan's daily society but also promoting the long-term progress and prosperity of the nation, which has a certain amount of hard work and merit. For these groups who have been working hard for the country for many years, regardless of party affiliation, upon reaching retirement age, they should be guaranteed a worry-free basic life in the future and be legally protected by the national pension system. However, these elderly retired civil servants have not only not been affirmed and taken care of by the DPP government but have been stigmatized as 'rice bugs' and 'fat cats' and used as tools for domestic party struggles. Moreover, President Tsai Ing-wen and the Lai Ching-te government have continued and deliberately suppressed them, which is very inhuman and lacks humanity. Eight years ago, the 'military and civil servants' pension reform' led and promoted by the Tsai Ing-wen government in 2018, under the banner of 'reform,' used a brutal expropriation method to forcefully reduce the legal pensions of retired military and civil servants, completely destroying the morale of the civil service and teaching systems and the country's talent attraction. This malicious pension reform case had a significant impact, causing many civil servants who met retirement qualifications to delay retirement to maintain their current higher salaries, and their squeeze caused the narrowing of channels for new entrants into the public sector, with the final result being the aging of the country's civil service system and talent gap. Not only that, but due to the erroneous pension reform by President Tsai Ing-wen, it has led to many young people in Taiwan's current society being unwilling to enter the professional military industry, graduates being unwilling to take the public service examination, and even public school teachers feeling disrespected by the government and leaving their teaching positions early. At that time, the Tsai Ing-wen government unilaterally amended the law and used the 'pension reform issue' as a tool for political mobilization and creating ethnic conflict, not only causing great division in Taiwanese society but also seriously damaging the 'principle of protecting trust' and 'principle of non-retroactivity of laws' in the country's constitution. Also, due to the 'unjust and unfair' impact of Tsai's pension reform being too great, many elderly retired people's life plans to use their retirement money for medical care, care, or basic old-age life have been completely disrupted and broken, which is sad. The past erroneous pension reform has caused serious social unrest. The former chairman of the National Federation of Civil Servants, Li Lai-hsi, recently publicly stated, 'In recent years, prices have soared, workers' basic wages have been adjusted and increased for ten consecutive years, labor insurance, national insurance, agricultural insurance, and old-age agricultural subsidies have been increased annually with the consumer price index, and national average income has created record highs every year. National tax revenue has been over-collected every year, and the retirement and severance fund has also earned a full harvest. While everyone shares the joy of increased wealth, the only ones whose pensions have been reduced every year are military and civil servants, who have been reduced for ten consecutive years. If it were not for the Legislative Yuan's amendment to the law to stop the inhuman annual reduction of income, retired grassroots civil servants would not know how to cope with future retirement needs. The older they get, the higher their dependence on life, the heavier the burden, and the less retirement income they have. Is it the policy maker who is so short-sighted, to expropriate the only means of subsistence of retired old people in a reverse torture-like manner? Is there no end to this?' The above heavy statement by Mr. Li Lai-hsi for the rights of retired military and civil servants is moving. The past serious improper pension reform policy of the Tsai government has caused great unrest in domestic society. The incoming Lai government must reflect, re-examine, respect the majority of public opinion, and respect the Legislative Yuan's decision to 'stop cutting civil servants' pensions,' which is the correct direction for the country. Otherwise, continuing to promote the wrong pension reform bill is to continue to bully retired military and civil servants across the country. At the end of 2025, the Legislative Yuan passed the amended 'Civil Servants Retirement, Severance, and Compensation Act' and 'Public School Teachers Retirement, Severance, and Compensation Regulations' in a third reading, stopping the annual reduction of retirement income replacement rates and unifying them with the 2023 standards. The above 'stop cutting civil servants' pensions' bill passed by the legislature, the Lai government does not agree, and the Executive Yuan, Examination Yuan, and DPP legislative party group have successively filed for constitutional interpretation with the Constitutional Court. The above unwise actions of the Lai government are actually continuing to oppose retired civil servants. Not only that, according to the amended law passed by the Legislative Yuan to stop the reduction of retirement pensions, the pension differences (from December 28, 2024, to July 31, 2025) of about 180,000 retirees, although they have been credited before August 1, the retirement pensions that were over-deducted in 2023 and 2024, the Examination Yuan and the Examination and Evaluation Department have not planned to make up for them. The above passive actions of delaying the make-up are also still bullying retired military and civil servants. KMT legislator Wong Hsiao-ling recently advocated that the government should promptly make up for the pension differences of retired military and civil servants in 2023 and 2024 and require the Examination Yuan and the Examination and Evaluation Department to announce the schedule. Wong Hsiao-ling said that the Examination Yuan and the Examination and Evaluation Department have misinterpreted the law passed by the legislature and have not handled the make-up work in accordance with the spirit of the amendment. She believes that the retirement pensions that the government has over-deducted in the past two years should be returned by law, and should not let retired military and civil servants bear the loss, especially the government as the employer of military and civil servants should adhere to the principle of sincerity and properly take care of current and retired personnel, rather than use the possible financial pressure of the retirement fund as a reason to continue to deduct the retirement pensions of military and civil servants. President Lai Ching-te's New Year's address in 2025 mentioned that the future government will let all citizens and military and civil servants share the fruits of national economic development. Premier Chen Chien-jen emphasized at the '114th Executive Yuan Model Civil Servant Award Ceremony' on December 3, 2025, that the people are served by civil servants, and civil servants are taken care of by the government, and the future government will continue to take care of civil servants, and 'cover all aspects and proceed step by step.' The above remarks by Lai Ching-te and Chen Chien-jen sound good on the surface, but the actual actions towards the existing rights of retired military and civil servants are still to suppress them to the bottom. In other words, the 'pension reform' bill of the Tsai Ing-wen government in the past unreasonably deprived many retired civil servants of their substantial economic benefits, and it was an extreme policy that destroyed the spirit of the rule of law and damaged the personal dignity of military and civil servants. Since the blue and white opposition parties passed the 'stop cutting civil servants' pensions' bill in the legislature at the end of last year, the Lai Ching-te government should abide by the law and implement it according to the law, and give retired military and civil servants a fair treatment, and should not continue to violate the law and persecute retired civil servants across the country. People First Party legislator Chen Chao-zi publicly pointed out on August 3 that the laws passed in the third reading should not be defaulted, and the pensions that should be made up should be made up, and the military should be given a raise according to the law. Civil servants should not be made to bear the unfair grievances and coldness that they should not bear after their dedication. Chen Chao-zi said that she wants to say thank you to all military and civil servant partners, thanking you for your silent dedication every day. And she said, 'The country can do without glamorous slogans and political stars, but it cannot do without grassroots civil servants who support society in every corner. Every partner who chooses to take the civil service examination has trust in the national system in their hearts and the goodwill to make society better. Therefore, we should not let civil servants feel disheartened.' The Lai government has been indulging political appointees while bullying grassroots civil servants in recent months. The DPP government has recently exposed four serious incidents related to 'political appointees' making wrong decisions or engaging in improper and illegal personal behavior, which have given a very bad impression to society and the general public. However, none of these high-ranking government officials have been punished or voluntarily resigned. First, for the Midlink Oil and Fat cancer-causing salad oil incident, which had a huge impact on people's life safety, government officials' handling of the poisoned oil was slow and their decisions were chaotic, causing strong dissatisfaction from all sectors, but no officials took responsibility and resigned. Second, several former members of the Control Yuan who had just stepped down on July 31 were caught by the media or reported by the public for repeatedly using official vehicles for private purposes, such as taking their dogs for grooming, seeing a dentist, getting a haircut, massage, or buying dinner, but these green officials were not punished after the investigation. Third, Wu Nai-jen, former secretary-general of the DPP and former chairman of Taiwan Sugar Corporation, was detained and placed under control by the court this year for selling Taiwan Sugar land at a low price and owing the national treasury and Taiwan Sugar 1.7 billion yuan, but was released after only 12 days of control. Recently, the media revealed that Wu Nai-jen is still riding luxury cars, dining in high-end restaurants, and going to the gym, causing serious doubts from all sectors. Fourth, the chairman of the Overseas Community Affairs Council, Hsu Chia-ching, was criticized by the People First Party for her 26-day overseas inspection covering 7 countries, eating gourmet food, watching movies, and spending 1.55 million public funds, but her report upon returning to the country was only 5 pages with vague and poorly written content, worse than a primary school student, suspected of using public funds for fake inspections and real tourism. On August 5, the People First Party further revealed that Hsu Chia-ching had been overseas for a total of 526 days and spent 23.83 million yuan from 2022 to the present, equivalent to spending one-third of her time each year not in Taiwan.