It was a mistake for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to avoid the anti-government rally in Taipei on Saturday by leaving the city. It is reasonable for the public to express their anxiety and dissatisfaction with an administration’s policies through a demonstration, and those in power have no justification for turning a deaf ear.
Toxic milk powder from China has caused public apprehension over food safety. Quality and safety problems with Chinese food products are nothing new, but the government’s reaction has been disappointing. The rally protesting tainted Chinese products reflected the majority of public opinion.
Another cause of anxiety has been the Ma administration’s failure to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty. A recent public opinion poll found that 28 percent of respondents thought cross-strait exchanges have increased drastically, 38.6 percent thought the government’s policies have harmed Taiwan’s sovereignty and 47 percent of those who said they were politically neutral thought Taiwan’s sovereignty had been compromised — the highest percentage ever.
Ma’s main policy goal has been cross-strait reconciliation, and yet the public thinks Taiwan has lost more than it has gained. The economic benefits of opening up Taiwan to Chinese tourists have not met expectations, the Chinese market has not created major business opportunities and Taiwanese exports to China have decreased. There has been a huge discrepancy between the public’s expectations and Ma’s efforts to protect national sovereignty and seek international space. Many people think Ma is naive and weak, that his policies lean too far toward China and that he lacks courage and tactics to deal effectively with Beijing’s leaders. They do not believe he will safeguard Taiwan.
The government has failed to respond to public worries in timely fashion, or to conduct effective dialog with the Democratic Progressive Party and its allies. The governing and opposition parties have been drifting further apart, to the extent that many people have the impression that Ma and his government care more about what China thinks than they do about the worries of ordinary Taiwanese.
Many people have decided to take matters into their own hands, come out onto the streets and make their voices heard. They hope to counter what they see as Ma’s mistaken policies. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people attended Saturday’s demonstration proves that there is significant public backing for the opposition’s demands. Further protests are expected when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visits.
Of course there is always an adversarial relationship between governing and opposition parties, but public opinion cannot be dismissed as nothing more than allegiance to unification or independence ideologies. Above all, when the government finds itself in a weak position in negotiations with China, such protests can provide it with powerful moral and strategic backing.
Those in power must take into consideration the interests of the nation and people as a whole. They need to see beyond the surface turmoil of political strife and observe public opinion trends at the grassroots.
When masses of people come out to express their worries about the government’s cross-strait policy, Ma and his officials should be listening with attention and humility. They should strengthen dialog with those holding different opinions and they should make the necessary adjustments to their policies. Without first establishing consensus and mutual trust within Taiwan, Taiwanese negotiators will have no cards in their hands when dealing with China.
Ma should keep in mind at all times that, since it was the people who entrusted him with the reins of government, he is obliged to take responsibility for the people as a whole.
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Eating at a breakfast shop the other day, I turned to an old man sitting at the table next to mine. “Hey, did you hear that the Legislative Yuan passed a bill to give everyone NT$10,000 [US$340]?” I said, pointing to a newspaper headline. The old man cursed, then said: “Yeah, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] canceled the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co and announced they would give everyone NT$10,000 instead. “Nice. Now they are saying that if electricity prices go up, we can just use that cash to pay for it,” he said. “I have no time for drivel like
Twenty-four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers are facing recall votes on Saturday, prompting nearly all KMT officials and lawmakers to rally their supporters over the past weekend, urging them to vote “no” in a bid to retain their seats and preserve the KMT’s majority in the Legislative Yuan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which had largely kept its distance from the civic recall campaigns, earlier this month instructed its officials and staff to support the recall groups in a final push to protect the nation. The justification for the recalls has increasingly been framed as a “resistance” movement against China and
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) reportedly told the EU’s top diplomat that China does not want Russia to lose in Ukraine, because the US could shift its focus to countering Beijing. Wang made the comment while meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas on July 2 at the 13th China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels, the South China Morning Post and CNN reported. Although contrary to China’s claim of neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, such a frank remark suggests Beijing might prefer a protracted war to keep the US from focusing on
RSS