Independent views rising
Surveys conducted in Taiwan and Hong Kong show that fewer Hong Kongers and Taiwanese identify as Chinese.
First, the percentages fluctuate at different times and it also depends on which age groups the survey targets — particularly if the survey is conducted in close temporal proximity to a major news event like the Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong or when the Beijing government threatens to fire some missiles at Taiwan.
Secondly, what is clear is that both Taiwanese and Hong Kongers have doubts and reservations about the promise of the “one country, two systems” policy promulgated by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平). Recent events in Hong Kong give the impression that what Deng conceived may not be what Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is delivering.
Taiwanese can observe it at a distance — today’s Hong Kong will be tomorrow’s Taiwan.
Frankie Leung
Los Angeles
Alex Fai’s follies fly again
Six years ago, four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, including Alex Fai (費鴻泰) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), paid a “personal visit” to the campaign headquarters of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and his running mate, former DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), to investigate allegations that turned out to be false. Following this fiasco, they became known as the “Four Fools.”
Now Fai has pushed parliamentary immunity to the limit by accusing the National Audit Office of “fooling around and waiting to die” over its investigation into independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) alleged misuse of National Taiwan University Hospital’s MG149 account. Fai’s unprecedented insult has left him looking even more foolish than last time.
Not so long ago, Fai praised Auditor-General Lin Ching-long (林慶隆) for his professional expertise, but now Fai insults the same person for his own selfish interests and those of his party. Surely, Fai’s opinion of Lin has not undergone a complete reversal. Clearly, he is lashing out blindly and acting like a fool.
Fai must know that, far from being hit by the MG149 allegations, Ko’s popularity has continued rising. By sticking to his guns and taking aim at government officials, Fai is pouring oil on the flames. He must be mad, stupid or both.
Fai is not as smart as Ko’s rival, KMT mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文). While Lien has urged Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) to step down over food safety scandals, Fai declined to urge Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) to resign if he cannot guarantee that there will be no more food safety problems.
Instead, he wants National Audit Office officials to resign for saying that there were no problems with the MG149 account. When a legislator is so out of touch with public opinion, his intelligence surely is experiencing problems.
If anyone is “waiting to die,” it is the poor old public who have been eating oil that has been messed around with. By taking aim at Lin instead of tackling the life-and-death issue of tainted oils, Fai is proving what a fool he really is.
Chen Chang-tuo
Taipei
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