Politicians should care more about the real welfare that concerns everyone in the society rather than political infighting was the conclusion reached by the five scholars at the end of the forum entitled ‘Future Development of Education and Society in Taiwan’ held jointly by TKU’s Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Taiwan Association of Strategic Studies and Taiwan Association of Futures Studies at Tamkang University on March 26.

One of the scholars, Wang Rong-chang, the speaker of the ‘Pan-purple’ camp (which is in contrast to the two major ‘pan-green’ and ‘pan-blue’ camps) called for urgent attention to tax reform, state pension, and long-term care for elderly and disabled people. He claimed that the ability of politicians who can handle these issues effectively will challenge the ‘wisdom’ of voters more than their ability in inciting political infighting as we are witnessing today. These infighting caused by the election have created a great rift among people so Professor Chen Chien-fu in Futures Studies also called for the importance of building up trust after such an emotionally charged election. He urged voters to rebuild a new trust that is based on mutual respect and tolerance.

A deeper reform, as pointed out by the Dean of College of Education, Chen Bo-chang, should occur in education, which will help establish a sense of justice that is based on reason and encourage all-round democratic participation. The chance of reaching that ‘rational’ society will increase provided that Taiwan’s economy is stable in 30 years’ time, as Chen Kuo-hua, Director of the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies claims. He adds that such an environment is conducive to creativity and independent thinking so that voters who care for the society today will be able to continue doing so. Creativity in the form of ‘multiple intelligence’ is regarded as the ‘wisdom’ that is needed by modern people for having an independent and rational decision, according to Chuang Chi-ming, the President of the Kaohsiung Open University. He espouses the significance of possessing multiple intelligences instead of a mono skill such as a verbal or logical intelligence measured by the IQ test. Hence, He presented the importance of ‘wisdom management’ and ‘exploring wisdom’ in his speech addressing the efficiency of learning through multiple intelligences.