“We have heard the people’s voice. I promise you, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] will be appreciative and humble. We’ll listen hard, care about the plight of the people and engage in policy reviews and introspection,” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in his election victory speech on March 22, 2008, a pledge he has since repeated every so often.
However, many can’t help but wonder if the president really has his ears attuned to the plight of the people. If the president is, as he often says, “feeling the pain of the people,” then he must have heard the recent cries of farmers from Jhunan Township (竹南) over the Miaoli County Government’s forceful takeover of their farmland, or of oyster farmers along the west coast over fears of reliving the nightmare of harvesting dead oysters as a result of industrial contamination, as well as the roars from environmentalists on behalf of the endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin.
Aloofness and ignorance exist everywhere and Taiwan is no exception. However, it is downright dispiriting to witness the apathy and callousness demonstrated by members of the government, as evidenced by the Miaoli County Government’s peremptory moves, Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) ignorant comments and, most of all, Ma’s inaction.
Ma’s silence to date is disturbing, with some wondering whether the president can hear only the voices of conglomerates and the rich.
The result of the seemingly heartless and insensitive inaction of the Ma government is that, once again, people are compelled to take their rage and discontent to the streets, with a protest scheduled to be held in front of the Presidential Office on Saturday to demand respect for their rights, their land, the environment and animals.
A recent survey by the Chinese-language Global Views Monthly magazine suggested that Ma’s approval rating last month stood at a mere 28.4 percent, a slip of 2 points from May. Granted, a new opinion poll released by the Cabinet’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission on Monday placed Ma’s approval rating at 46.8 percent, but that figure is still less than 50 percent, a sign of Ma’s unpopularity among the majority of people.
Suffering a similarly low approval rating, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was embarrassed by the poor performance of his governing Grand National Party in local elections last month. That may very well serve as a warning for Ma and his party. If Ma, with an approval rating of only 28 percent, continues to turn a deaf ear to public hardships, it will only be a matter of time before the people translate their anger and discontent into their vote in the year-end special municipal elections and deal Ma a political blow.
Ma and his government officials are advised to practice what Ma preaches and keep their ears attuned to the public’s voice. After all, it is the government’s basic responsibility to look after the public’s well-being and be responsive to its cries.
Mr President, are you listening?
A Chinese diplomat’s violent threat against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi following her remarks on defending Taiwan marks a dangerous escalation in East Asian tensions, revealing Beijing’s growing intolerance for dissent and the fragility of regional diplomacy. Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) on Saturday posted a chilling message on X: “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off,” in reference to Takaichi’s remark to Japanese lawmakers that an attack on Taiwan could threaten Japan’s survival. The post, which was later deleted, was not an isolated outburst. Xue has also amplified other incendiary messages, including one suggesting
Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) on Saturday last week shared a news article on social media about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan, adding that “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off.” The previous day in the Japanese House of Representatives, Takaichi said that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a situation threatening Japan’s survival,” a reference to a legal legal term introduced in 2015 that allows the prime minister to deploy the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The violent nature of Xue’s comments is notable in that it came from a diplomat,
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations. Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes. However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law
“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas). But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;
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