What would the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government do without former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)? It’s hard not to ask that question after a recent volley of Chen-centered excuses by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his officials.
Addressing the host of problems and scandals that have embarassed the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, including the poor facilities and overflowing toilets, Ma said it was Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government that failed to maintain the facility properly during its eight years in power.
Commenting on the recent slew of environmental disputes, including controversies over the Dapu (大埔) farmland seizure and the fate of Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology’s proposed petrochemical plant, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said they were the fault of Chen’s government for giving them initial approval.
Speaking on the state of the economy, Ma again accused the Chen administration of stalling Taiwan’s development.
Chen has clearly become a convenient scapegoat for the Ma administration, even though Ma is well over two years into his presidency.
While there may be some truth to Ma’s and Wu’s criticisms of Chen and his administration, Ma, not Chen, is the head of state, and the KMT, not the DPP, is the governing party.
In case it hasn’t come to Ma’s attention, he was elected because people were dissatisfied with Chen’s governance. Ma was voted into the Presidential Office because people thought he could change things for the better, not so he could shirk responsibility by blaming everything on the former administration. Meanwhile, much of his “can-do” image came from claiming full credit as Taipei mayor for the many projects initiated by his predecessor — Chen.
Whatever happened to Ma’s pledge that the KMT — being the party holding both executive power and a majority in the legislature — would shoulder the “full responsibility that comes with complete governance”?
Not to mention that Chen has paid the price, with ongoing detention, a tarnished reputation and lawsuits that continue to plague him.
Ma is so busy trying to score points against the former administration that he appears oblivious to his own administration’s spotty record thus far.
For starters, the latest statistics from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics showed the nation’s richest 20 percent of households earned 8.22 times as much as the poorest 20 percent, the highest gap recorded since 2001.
The unemployment rate reached a peak at 6.13 percent in August last year, and average salary growth, meanwhile, dipped to its lowest point ever last year at minus 3.47 percent.
Government statistics also show that the number of notifications of suicide (encompassing actual and attempted suicides) last year in February, the month usually regarded to have the fewest cases, totaled 2,076 — 675 more than what was recorded in the same month in 2008 under Chen. The number of reported cases of domestic abuse also increased in January last year by 8.9 percent over the same month in 2008 under the DPP administration.
Statistics show that elementary and junior high school students unable to afford school lunches totaled 120,000 in 2006, 140,000 in 2007 and 170,000 in 2008, before surging to 226,000 last year.
Ma can point the finger all he wants at Chen and the DPP administration, but the numbers speak for themselves on the performance of his own government.
Ma, more than two years into his presidency, is no longer a rookie. It’s time he acts like a leader and shoulders his responsibilities instead of simply shifting the blame onto a convenient scapegoat.
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS