A politician’s personality decides his or her political style, and no matter how many fancy words are used to dress things up, character will in the end determine action. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) says that the service trade agreement respects public opinion, but this is beside the point because there are only two possible outcomes: either the agreement will be passed by the Chinese Nationalist Party-(KMT) dominated legislature, or review of the pact will be delayed past deadline, meaning it will take effect by default, just as did the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.
Ma, who has always lived a protected life with few, if any, hardships, is a narcissist politician who has won elections by packaging himself in pretty ads. He is so fond of himself that he wants only to socialize with similar people, paying little attention to anyone who is different. He uses people who are in his image, such as Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), Representative to Washington King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦). He is both uninterested and incapable of seeing people for what they really are, such as former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) and former Taipei City councillor Lai Su-ju (賴素如), and he even turns them into enemies, such as with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Even though Ma only uses his own people, he will not delegate to them. For example, as soon as anything might harm his image or interests, he takes immediate action, disregarding all laws and regulations.
The nation’s highest executive leader, Jiang, was recently twice corrected by Ma — over the controversial Accounting Act (會計法) amendment and the ongoing Dapu (大埔) demolition controversy. This makes it clear that while Jiang, a former political science professor, may tell his students the premier is the highest executive official, in practice, it is the president who calls the shots.
Ma is both insensitive and not particularly good at what he does, which is why his government reacts slowly to events, and is always playing catch-up with public opinion. The result is that his reputation has dropped so low, both here and abroad, that he is better known for his incompetence than his achievements.
The service trade agreement and the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), have generated a strong backlash from the public and opposition parties, but the government has done nothing.
More recently, it took public sentiment to reach boiling point before Ma instructed the Cabinet to promote the advantages of the service trade agreement.
The response? Two of Ma’s confidantes, Wang and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Shih (史亞平), talked to Shih’s hairdresser on Sunday about the pact as Shih was getting a haircut.
Ma may be a lame-duck president, but he seems to have no interest in improving either his weak policy achievements or low popularity ratings.
Instead he is focusing his energies on being re-elected KMT chairman to cling onto power, and arranging it so that his cronies can stand for election in the more important positions that will be up for grabs in next year’s local government seven-in-one elections.
Ma picks and chooses who he listens to, meaning he is deaf to anyone who says he has had more failures than successes.
Like the Titanic hitting the iceberg, this state of affairs is unlikely to avoid disaster. Whether KMT legislators listen to public opinion or to Ma will determine whether they abandon a sinking ship, or go down with their captain.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under