“Trust people power”, Taiwan’s digital minister says of island’s success in containing COVID-19
Governments should listen to the people and empower them to make a difference, Taiwan’s digital minister who has become an icon of the island’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak said.
Audrey Tang, who became Taiwan’s first transgender cabinet member in 2016, told Apple Daily in an interview that Taiwan has kept the number of COVID cases low as the administration led by President Tsai Ing-wen constantly engaged with people to look for innovation solutions.
Taiwan has been lauded for its successful digital strategy in containing the outbreak. Since the pandemic hit the island earlier this year, it has so far recorded some 400 cases, one of the lowest in the world per capita. The strategies included creating a real-time online application that informs members of the public face-mask inventories at local pharmacies, as well as actively debunking misinformation circulating on the internet on social media.
But Tang attributed those initiatives to the wisdom of the crowd. “Governments should trust their own people as much as they can. Officials won’t be going too far if they think they know everything without listening to the public,” she said in the interview. “What we did was just empower any unconventional thoughts that we found creative,” she said, adding that, for example, the mask inventory was a local idea.
She also borrowed Bruce Lee’s motto “be water” in explaining its liberal approach. “We as administrative departments should become what is demanded. If people want a cup, we should become a cup. Let’s take the mask map as an example. If social innovators needed a teapot to create a map for masks, then we become a teapot. We can be water, too,” she said.
---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app
To know more:
https://bit.ly/2yMMfQE Apple Daily mobile app latest version
DOWNLOAD NOW