Dao (道) and Shu （术）

Are we moving away from the government of "dao" (way) to "shu" (tactic)?

In simple explanation, “dao” means the direction to ideal society like a government doing good things openly to gain support from the people to achieve the target. And “shu” means the strategy to achieve success like using method, tactic, art, or statecraft to gain the trust of the people.

The debate between “dao” and “shu” may be best described in Taiwan after the death of Chiang Kai-shek. In slightly more than 30 years, Taiwan political development experienced the change over from “dao-shu” balance to “shu” majority and then back to “dao” majority.

The Taiwan Presidency since 1978:
Chiang Ching-kuo (20 May 1978 - 13 Jan 1988) placed equally emphasis on “dao” and “shu”.
Lee Teng-hui (13 Jan 1988 - 20 May 2000) moved towards “shu” and gave less emphasis to “dao”.
Chen Shui-bian (20 May 2000 - 20 May 2008) went even further to a state of no “dao” and full of “shu”.
Ma Ying-jeou (20 May 2000 - ) makes a u-turn and give more weight to “dao” and discourages “shu”.

Ma was elected due to the majority of Taiwanese wanting to have a change. They are having too many “shu” in the political, business and social sense. They want Ma to make changes and implement more “dao”. However, Taiwan had in a period of 20 years (1988-2008) been governed by Presidents who believed in “shu”. “Shu” culture has already been planted in public administration, military, and many aspects of society. It is not an easy task to get rid of it or minimise its influence. It is still too early to tell whether Ma can successfully turn the table around and make Taiwan a “dao” base state.

When Singapore gained independent in 1965, our first generation leaders believes in delivering good things to the people and they openly declared the way in the Singapore National Pledge:

We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.

It seems to be a tall order. However, it shows the foresight and quality of our past leaders. This is the way (dao) that we want to follow and aim to achieve. And indeed, we are very successful and become one of the highest income countries in the world. The first generation leaders managed to cut down unemployment; build schools and flats; develop economy and even establish a sizable defence force.

With the passing of first generation leaders, can we still maintain the “dao” as it stood in 1965?

Look at the 2008 World Financial Crisis; don’t we see more “shu” (tactics) than “dao” (way) in the marketing and structuring of financial products? It had moved away from the traditional banking practice and investment arrangement – in the name of getting higher return!