At the onset of the SARS epidemic, the complacent public health authorities, convinced that the outbreak, started by a superspreader returning from a trip to China, would never be as serious as a yearly spread of endemic dengue fever, failed to take the necessary preventive measures. They believed their healthy Taiwan could cope much better with severe acute respiratory syndrome than either Hong Kong, which is, literally, part of China where the infectious disease originated, or Vietnam, a less developed country emerging from its communist autocratic - and therefore - backward past. At worst, they were confident, Taiwan would fare just as Singapore did in getting the epidemic under effective control.

People started running on pharmacies for protective masks more than two months ago. The panic buying exhausted the supply, but the health authorities did not get prepared for the worst. They should have made sure that there would be enough supply of all devices and equipment to outlast the long relentless SARS onslaught. They should have ensured sufficient supply of medical personnel, too. They should have educated the public on the deadly contagious disease.

Belatedly the authorities started doing something to make up for what they had failed to do. Their efforts have been haphazard at best. Stringent preventive measures, such as closure of contaminated hospitals and compulsory quarantine, have been taken. Such measures have offended some but proven useless to many, owing chiefly to half-hearted enforcement. It takes a long time to replenish the depleted sources of personnel and equipment to continue the fight against the epidemic, which is threatening to ruin Taiwan’s economy as well as its image of a civilized country.

Selfishness is to blame for the failure to bring the SARS plague under control. Hospitals are accused of covering up an outbreak. Others refuse to accept patients showing SARS symptoms. People have broken their home quarantine at will. Quarantine hospitals are necessary, but whenever one is proposed, residents in its neighborhood rise up in protest. Many hospital emergency rooms have been closed for sterilization, and patients, like people critically wounded in an accident, may succumb for want of prompt treatment. Their lives, indeed, are just as precious as those of SARS patients or would-be patients the health authorities vow to save. Asked to open more military hospitals to SARS suspects, the Ministry of National Defense said only a couple of days ago that it already did more than enough of its share in the fight against SARS. It might be true. However, isn’t it true that the armed forces are duty-bound to defend the nation against attacks from abroad or protect the lives of the people from any form of attack, an invasion of SARS from China included?

A spokesman for President Chen Shui-bian has described as “questionably motivated” a seemingly suicidal attack by a flatcar driver on the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) on Thursday. As a result, he said, the National Security Bureau is considering tightening security control near the Presidential Building, which also accommodates the Ministry of National Defense, opposite the MOTC across a street. The announcement was made only after the National Security Bureau had held a meeting, where the security of the president was discussed in the aftermath of the slamming into the MOTC front gate of the truck, which caught fire and aboard which the driver died. The spokesman also said the president hopes the municipal authorities of Taipei would “cooperate,” for the planned tightening of security control in what is known as the Po Ai (Love for All) special district - the area with the Presidential Building at its center - may affect their city management. Is the president that concerned about his own personal security amidst the deepening SARS crisis? The late President Chiang Kai-shek, whom many call a dictator and who, as such, ought to fear more for his life, at least did not publicize the importance of his security as self-styled “savior of the Chinese nation.” He knew no amount of security could insulate a president completely against assassination. The United States government, which provides probably the world’s best security service for the president, could not save the life of John F. Kennedy and failed to prevent a would-be assassin from firing on Ronald Reagan.

The people of Taiwan want their president to enjoy an effectual personal security. But they need - badly need now - his leadership to rid themselves of the fear of SARS.

When he addressed the nation a few weeks ago, President Chen did not declare war on SARS. He just offered platitudes. He appeared at funeral ceremonies for medical workers killed on the battlefield in the undeclared war on the disease, paying tribute to them instead of rallying the people behind him to fight the epidemic. He called meeting after top strategic meeting to map out - or, just to fail to map out - a workable course of action against the contagion of the deadly illness. He did not order a pooling of medical personnel, which alone can provide an uninterrupted and unweakened service for an increasingly large number of needy patients. He did not require all military hospitals to take care of civilian SARS suspects. In a word, he has failed to show leadership. He may have to declare a national state of emergency.

President Chen, elected three years ago to lead the nation, must assert his long wanted leadership, before it is too late, to achieve a national unity of purpose in Taiwan’s anti-SARS war.

（本評論代表個人意見）