President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told a prayer breakfast meeting yesterday in New Taipei City (新北市) that he has heard the voice of the people and that there were many things the government needed to work on. Unfortunately, however, it looks as though the nation’s prayers will not be answered as a result of that breakfast meeting, because Ma’s remarks showed he still suffers from the hearing impairment that has plagued him for years — selective listening.
He only hears the sycophantic voices of those closest to him, not those further away who disagree with his policies, no matter how loud they shout.
The president did promise to redouble the government’s efforts to improve the economy, create more investments and exports and to ensure the poor get more. However, he said nothing about reining in his drive to bind the nation’s economy with that of China or addressing concerns raised by the closed-door negotiations with Beijing that have led to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) or the services trade agreement.
How could he claim yesterday that he has heard the voice of the people when he obviously did not hear about the results of two polls, one conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR), the other by cable news channel TVBS, which were released on Thursday?
The TISR poll found that 68.3 percent of respondents are very wary about the prospect of a cross-strait peace agreement and do not want negotiations for such a pact to begin before a national referendum is held to sanction such talks. Just about the same number (67.9 percent) said they were opposed to the idea that if a cross-strait peace pact were signed, unification with China should be recognized as a national goal.
The TVBS survey found that 71 percent of respondents support Taiwan’s independence from China if given the option of either backing independence or supporting unification. The poll also found that 64 percent supported maintaining the “status quo.”
Even Mainland Affairs Council spokeswoman Wu Mei-hung (吳美紅) said the TVBS results show that the government should move forward on its policy toward China based on mainstream public opinion.
The message that a majority of Taiwanese are not rushing as fast as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to embrace the autocratic monolith on the other side of the Taiwan Strait came through loud and clear on Thursday — as it has been in poll after poll in recent years — and yet it is obvious that no one in Ma’s inner circle in the KMT, the Presidential Office or Ma himself, is paying the slightest attention.
Ma is continuing to urge quick passage of the service trade pact by the legislature — under the guise that it will help the economy — despite the criticism and protests from all levels of society against it. The complaints raised about the way that the pact was reached are exactly the same as those heard after the ECFA was inked, yet the administration did not change its course.
He continues to send government and KMT officials to cozy up to their Chinese counterparts — dispatching Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) to the recent APEC forum in Bali and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) to a forum with the Chinese Communist Party in Nanning, China, last weekend — where the dominant voice of such meetings comes from Beijing. Ma’s determination to open Taiwan up to China has been the hallmark of his presidency.
Ma can say he is listening to the public, but his actions belie his words. So it should come as no surprise then that so many Taiwanese no longer give any credence to what they hear from him.
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
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
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