Many people vividly remember the “long stay program” launched while Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) campaigned for the presidential election, during which he toured the country, spent time in rural areas and worked shoulder to shoulder with fishermen and farmers.
The campaign tactic proved to be successful in that it helped Ma win the hearts of many laborers and created rapprochement between Ma and grassroots movements.
However, after being handed the key to the Presidential Office, Ma has focused virtually all his attention on the capital.
If President Ma is aware of the plight of the nation’s fishermen and farmers, whose livelihood is under threat, then he is not showing it.
Two weeks into his presidency, Ma has made scant public appearances, limiting himself to attending the exhibition of Jean Francois Millet’s The Gleaners on Friday night, taking part in a dragon boat race practice session on Saturday morning and making a speech at the WiMAX Expo on Tuesday.
While the president is all composure, half of the nation’s long-distance fishing boats are in crisis, with many saying they are readying to end operations for good.
Rising fuel prices and increasingly strict international fishing restrictions have meant that the fishing industry is facing total collapse, Long-shun Fishing Company president Wang Shun-long (王順隆) said.
Farmers are having a hard time as well.
Adding to the burden of an increase in the price of fertilizer produced by Taiwan Fertilizer Co, many crops were recently lost to torrential rains.
As of Tuesday, parts of Yunlin County, a key producer of fruits and leafy vegetables, remained under water, the Council of Agriculture said.
Ma was halfway through a speech at the Gleaners exhibition when it started to rain. “Let me make an announcement first,” he said. “Now that I am not Taipei mayor, the rain in Taipei has nothing to do with me.”
Ma may have believed his attempt at humor was harmless, but judging from his silence in the face of the various sectors of the economy that have suffered in recent weeks because of rising commodity prices, such jesting may have revealed a streak of indifference.
A great part of a president’s role is to steer his country with clarity and conviction.
To do this, a leader must empathize with the population.
If Ma is to achieve this, he will have to leave the comfort of his air-conditioned office in Taipei and again get his hands dirty to some extent with the farmers, fishermen and others who are now struggling even more to make ends meet.
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