The group say they want to make policymaking more transparent and streamlined, moving away from bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake.
Politicians in the past balked at diffusing the crisis 翻譯公司 aware their policy choices could very well blow up in their face.
In TCSIC's first press conference in January, many members wore surgical masks out of fear of being identified and targeted at work.
Finding Middle Ground
▲圖／翻攝自中國郵報
Chou Hsin (周鑫), a civil servant in Chiayi City, said he only jumped on the issue when he saw the government's own actuary reports predicting that the whole public sector pension system would be bankrupt in 2031.
"While they can't agree completely with our position, when I explain our predicament of high contribution rates, delayed retirement age and the looming threat of bankruptcy, they can start to at least sympathize with our dilemma." Chou added that he was surprised when older superiors showed support and encouragement for the group's mission to institute changes from within.
But flying under the media's radar has been a younger generation of civil servants, who not only want pension reforms to proceed 翻譯公司 but also changes to the very definition of public service itself.
Members of the TCSIC have powered their message of questioning business as usual in the public sector through social media.
Whereas older civil servants and retirees rally easily to the call of resisting cuts to their benefits, for many young people 翻譯公司 the pension issue seems like a distant problem full of obtrusive technical terms and legalese.
Chou, whose own family includes retired civil servants was initially asked why he wanted to involve himself in the issue.
For him, it was a culture that was making the system unaccountable to the public, inefficient, unresponsive to social needs and at the mercy of political appointees. This desire by younger members of the civil service to reform from within gave way to the formation of the TCSIC.
One video clip published on Facebook outlines the convoluted and closed-off process of policymaking.
One such group has been the Taiwan Civil Service Innovation Coalition (TCSIC 翻譯公司 公務革新力
"There are deliberate moves by some to frame this as a 'political stocktaking against civil servants' in order to frame this as an ideological issue involving the pan green and pan blues. This has transformed an issue about systemic problems into a war of words."
TAIPEI 翻譯公司 Taiwan -- No recent social issue has better demonstrated the fracturing potential of Taiwan's economic woes, its looming demographic crisis and its generational divide than that of pension reform.
"Other young civil servants wanted a more radical approach: a clear division along generational lines to pursue reform objectives. But our viewpoint is different: a country's pension system is built on generations paying into it to support the next — so when we hear these opinions we have to take them into account and make adjustments accordingly," he said.
。-> 翻譯社|,-> 翻譯公司|的-> 翻譯Lin called on the new government to not only tackle pension reform but change the culture of the public bureaucracy.
"I'm 32 now and will be 45 or 46 when the pension funds are predicted to run dry. Right now, NT$3 翻譯公司000 is being deducted from my salary every month to pay into the pension fund. Unless something changes I basically won't be seeing any of the money I'm putting in right now," he said during a telephone interview.
He said he found it surprising how the "relatively well-educated civil servant cohort does not have the good judgment to stand up to fake news or rumors."
In January, the Alliance for Monitoring Pension Reforms 翻譯公司 made up of retired and working public servants as well as teachers and military veterans 翻譯公司 staged a massive rally as social groups and government representatives concluded a pension reform conference seeking to draw consensus on key points 翻譯公司 including lowering the income replacement ratio and phasing out the controversial 18 percent preferential savings rate.
Since the Democratic Progressive Party swept into power last May, President Tsai Ing-wen has made reforming Taiwan's archaic pension system a government priority.
For Lin, however, that process has been fraught with incidents of personal attacks.
The Elephant in the Room
And even among groups supporting reform positions were diverse. Chou emphasized repeatedly during our conversation that TCSIC could not possibly represent all of its members.
Just before the new government took power, Lin Yu-kai (林于凱), a young civil servant who had served for five years, drafted an open letter to then-Premier-designate Lin Chuan.
"For me 翻譯公司 it's understandable that older colleagues who are about to retire want to take a position of resisting the government's reforms 翻譯公司" Chou said.
Galvanized by Lin's open letter to the Tsai administration, Chou later became the organizations' spokesman for government-held discussion panels on pension reform.
Faced with impending bankruptcy 翻譯公司 the issue of propping up the convoluted funds has been framed across party lines as a ticking time bomb.
He said that following a recording of a televised debate on a political commentary show, Lee Lai-hsi (李來希), a prominent critic of pension reform, called him an idiot (Lin said he responded by calling Lee "very smart for having manipulated public opinion").
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