Indeed, the president said he reached a "consensus" with Premier Liu Chao-shiuan, who has been pilloried for his claim that the KMT government's disaster response was "very fast," that any settling of accounts with derelict officials will not take place until "early September" to avoid "influencing the morale of first line rescue workers."

With the exception of constructive decisions to set up a specialized department for disaster prevention and rescue under the interior ministry and purchase urgently needed rescue helicopters, Ma's two-hour meeting with the news media constituted little more than an exercise in avoiding acknowledging and solving the gravest problem of "political responsibility" facing Taiwan. This most urgent problem concerns the fact that the source of the poor performance of the central government disaster rescue and response mechanisms lies in the malfunction of the KMT government's top leadership and command structure. Addressing this malfunction of top level leadership cannot wait until "early September" because the quality and capability of central government leadership will directly influence the effectiveness and efficiency and progress of recovery, resettlement and reconstruction efforts.

Moreover, there is little doubt that allowing what has been fairly termed a "cold-blooded Cabinet" to oversee the launch and set the future directions of recovery and reconstruction will be detrimental to the interests of disaster victims and the long-term prospects for Taiwan's recovery.

Moreover, as has been observed by numerous disaster response professionals and former related KMT and DPP government officials, the central government disaster response established after the Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake and progressively rationalized under the former DPP administration are still in place but "vanished" after Typhoon Morakot struck Aug. 8. The reason for the deteriorating function of these mechanisms beginning with Typhoon Fung-Wong last July and worsening in Typhoon Morakot lies in the identity of the new leaders at the helm of our disaster response system from President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Liu down.

No matter how "professional" or "competent" KMT senior leaders believe themselves to have been in the 1980s and 1990s during KMT one-party rule, their ingrained bureaucratic, passive, secretive and hierarchal mentality has proven to be dysfunctional in Taiwan's democratic society in the 21st century.

There can be scant hope for the renewal of public confidence in the central government's capability to respond to crises until Liu and other incompetent leaders, including at minimum the ministers of defense, interior economics, foreign affairs, agriculture and justice along with the secretary-generals of the National Security Council and the Executive Yuan. Moreover, the lack of both empathy and political morality displayed by Ma and other KMT leaders will only undermine confidence in their future leadership.

Many Taiwan citizens recall that then Democratic Progressive Party vice premier Yu Shyi-kun resigned office immediately nine years ago after the death of four construction workers who were swept away in a flash flood in the Pachang River after the then KMT-run Chiayi County government, the National Fire Administration and the Air Force failed to coordinate a rescue effort. The subtext in the message sent yesterday by Ma's scarcely veiled hint that Liu and his Cabinet will remain in office indefinitely will be quite clearly read by the rest of the KMT bureaucracy and by Taiwan's public.

That message is simply that while a DPP vice premier resigned after the tragic death of four Taiwan workers, Ma and the ruling KMT do not believe there is any obligation for a KMT premier to step down from office after the deaths of over 400.

Far from undermining the morale of front line rescue workers and disaster victims, a decision by Ma to accept political responsibility by immediately reorganizing the Cabinet would have sparked hope that the KMT government was capable of learning from past errors and improving its performance.

Indeed, Ma's implication that the pursuit of administrative and political responsibility would "affect the morale" of front-line officials and disaster workers hints that local officials, especially in DPP administered counties, will be used as scapegoats while Liu and his incompetent Cabinet keep sitting in office.

We therefore urge DPP and KMT lawmakers to join in a motion of no confidence to avert further disasters for Taiwan's 23 million people.