Taiwanese cheated by Ma
Before President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) honeymoon was over, he had already had an affair with China and belittled himself as “Mr Ma.” He has a one-sided love affair with China, but it is wholehearted, while purposely neglecting Taiwan. If his attitude persists, Taiwanese will suffer four years of darkness under Ma and their democracy will be at risk.
Ma places himself on the second line in his administration. No wonder Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) has been keeping quiet and in hiding. During the election campaign, Siew said he felt sorry for the public because of the poor economy and criticized former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration for mishandling economic policy.
Now Siew is too shy to face the nation and answer questions on the economy. The stock market is dropping like a rock. Because of inflation, many people are having trouble making ends meet. Is the ruling party “ready” to cope with the current economic turmoil?
Ma has assigned himself three tasks — diplomacy, national defense and relations with China. His performance in all three areas has been unsatisfactory to date.
Ma wants to implement a “diplomatic truce” with China. For Taiwan, this is camouflage for “diplomatic surrender.” In national defense, Ma does not have the courage to ask China to dismantle the 1,400 missiles aimed at Taiwan or to ask the US to unfreeze military sales to Taiwan. He puts national security at China’s mercy and tries to please China by giving away sovereignty in exchange for peace. Ma thinks using the name “Chinese Taipei” for Taiwan at this year’s Olympics is a diplomatic victory. He should review his high school English grammar to discover that “Chinese” is the adjectival form of “China.”
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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