In view of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recent string of poor electoral showings, one would expect members who care about the state of the party to jump at the chance for a frank discussion with party leaders on how to stop the bleeding.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) dinner for KMT lawmakers on Monday night provided such a chance, giving the lawmakers a rare opportunity to deliver pan-blue supporters’ grievances in person to Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman.
It looked set to be an interesting evening, with a number of legislators saying they would seize the opportunity, but instead turned into a rather bland affair, with lawmakers backing down at the request of KMT Legislator Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌).
“I told [them] that we were likely to get ulcers if we talked about serious issues while eating and they all agreed. We can find a better time to offer suggestions,” Hsu told reporters after the dinner.
In the end, Ma may have been the only one to go home that night with an ulcer. The president spent the evening touting his planned economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing and asking lawmakers to promote it. Legislators also offered some comments on the US beef protocol and the swine flu vaccination program, but skirted the party’s election woes.
A number of KMT lawmakers told the press yesterday that Hsu’s comment had caught them off guard, adding that they did not want to ignore his suggestion “out of respect” for their colleague.
Rather than blaming Hsu, KMT lawmakers who purport to have the public’s grievances in mind should not be so easily dissuaded from voicing criticism.
One would hope that lawmakers who are more than willing to launch a volley of criticism on talk shows would have the guts to challenge Ma to his face. Are we to believe that, out of the kindness of their hearts, legislators wanted to spare Ma from public embarrassment because they feared he might not take criticism very well in a public setting?
Regardless, KMT lawmakers failed their supporters by “playing nice” at the dinner, letting Ma off the hook and ignoring the anxiety among pan-blue supporters over the party’s condition.
Indeed, a glance at the news clip of Monday’s dinner showed everyone smiling and drinking — one might have mistaken it as a feast celebrating an election victory rather than a wake for a string of embarrassing election results.
As for Ma, if he is sincere about seeking the reasons behind the KMT’s poor electoral showing, as he has said, he should have dismissed Hsu’s suggestion and invited those present to fire away on what he and his government have done wrong.
Ma’s approval ratings have tumbled in opinion polls across media outlets, suggesting that a large percentage of the public is questioning his competence and crisis management skills.
But no one can help a government that won’t help itself by opening the door to public opinion — and public dissatisfaction. The Ma administration gains nothing by surrounding itself with pliable voices who don’t dare challenge it in person.
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto says he knows how to fix the problems facing Indonesia. Yet his economic mismanagement and authoritarian tendencies are steering the nation toward a familiar mix of currency instability and political chaos. The world’s fourth-most populous nation risks reversing the hard-won democratic and business reforms that came after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At that time, the rupiah collapsed and the political upheaval that followed forced former president Haji Mohamed Suharto from power. Prabowo’s administration is ignoring similar warning signs. That disconnect was apparent in a national address on Wednesday, when Prabowo projected the swagger that has
RSS