Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday voiced his disagreement with a recent poll that showed his disapproval rate rose to 48.5 percent, the highest since he took over the premiership a year ago.
“If interviewees were asked about the controversies on the expansion projects at the Central Taiwan Science Park, the land expropriation in Dapu (大埔) and the fire at the sixth naphtha cracker plant, of course the disapproval rate would rise,” Wu said when approached for comments on the recent poll.
“If the questions had been constructed differently, the questionnaire would have led to different results,” he added, citing other polls that put more than 80 percent of the public in agreement with the government’s responses to the controversies.
He did not name the polls he was referring to, however.
On Friday, the Chinese-language monthly Global Views released its latest poll that showed President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Cabinet’s approval ratings on the decline. The poll showed Ma’s disapproval rating at 57 percent, a slight increase from 56.2 percent last month.
It also showed Wu’s disapproval rating had gone up from a low of 39 percent in February.
Regarding the Cabinet’s performance, the survey saw an increase of 1.6 points to 51.8 percent in its disapproval rating, the highest since August last year, when the rating was at 63.2 percent following public dissatisfaction with the government’s response to Typhoon Morakot.
Wu took over as premier after his predecessor Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) resigned to take responsibility for the government’s much-criticized disaster relief efforts.
“No matter what polls show, there are always things that the government does not do well enough,” Wu said yesterday. “The decrease in the government’s approval ratings means that people expect the government to do better. The government has to work harder.”
Weighing on the Ma administration have been a string of confrontations between affected residents and police over a slew of environmental disputes, among which include the fate of the giant Formosa Petrochemicals refinery complex after three fires in six months raised questions about safety and environmental damage.
The government has also backed a new factory by the world’s fourth-largest LCD panel maker, AU Optronics, even after farmers and environmentalists blocked it with a lawsuit last month.
Meanwhile, unemployment remains at a stubborn 5.2 percent, unusually high for Taiwan, and statistics from the Ministry of the Interior show that the number of households living below the poverty line rose to a record high of 108,000 in the second quarter of this year.
“People are impatient with the Ma administration for slow reform and its lack of efficiency,” Tamkang University strategic studies professor Alexander Huang (黃介正) said. “It’s reputation, expectations and frustration combined.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY REUTERS AND STAFF WRITER
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS