A huge outdoor ad has been put up in Chiayi as part of the city’s mayoral election campaign, saying: “A vote for Chen Yi-chen (陳以真) is a vote for Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).”
After coming under pressure, the owner of the building on which the ad appeared removed it, which sparked protests from another candidate, who said that there is no freedom of expression in the city.
Although this is just a small interlude in the election campaign, it is interesting because Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate Chen had demanded that the ad be taken down, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), who is also running for the position, protested its removal.
That the KMT candidate is so afraid to be associated with the president and her party’s chairman shows that KMT candidates think Ma will scare voters away.
US President Barack Obama faced a similar situation leading up to this week’s US midterm elections. As candidates did all they could to avoid being associated with Obama — whose performance has been less than stellar — Republican candidates only had to directly challenge Obama’s policies to score easy victories. Ma is clearly in the same boat Obama was.
The Democrats were routed, and the Republicans, who now control both houses of the US Congress, are claiming a “historic” victory. In the future, Obama’s policy implementation will be even more constrained by Republicans, while the media will train the spotlight on former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton and her expected 2016 presidential candidacy. Although he still has two years in office, Obama is a lame duck president and the post-Obama era is beginning.
Ma could learn a lot by looking at Obama’s situation. Every opinion survey and expert prognosis points to overall KMT losses in the Nov. 29 nine-in-one local elections, and it seems that the only question left is how bad the defeat will be. Ma has had full control over the government, so he should also take full responsibility for the results.
It will be difficult for Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) not to take political responsibility for the poor policy achievements and step down, and it is only natural that Ma should resign as party chairman to take responsibility if the party fares as poorly as expected.
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) is expected to be re-elected, and, as with Clinton for the US Democrats, he is seen as the future for the KMT.
Ma now needs to consider what he will be doing during the year-and-a-half remaining in his term. What kind of president does he want to be remembered as after eight years in office?
In Ma’s address after being re-elected in 2012, he talked about his “position in history.” Everyone knows that he wants to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and that to that end, he leans toward China and always considers what Beijing wants. He ignored public opinion by signing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement and the cross-strait service trade agreement, and entered into talks about a cross-strait trade in goods agreement. Despite Ma offering so many compromises, Xi still did not allow him to attend the APEC meeting in Beijing. Ultimately, the two shall never meet.
Ma is dreaming if he thinks someone else will bestow a place in history on him. It is only through solid practical policy achievements that he will be able to burnish his legacy. He must now engage in a serious review of the shortcomings of his cross-strait and domestic policies and use his remaining time in office to listen to public opinion, appoint talented people, follow policies that differ from his past efforts and try to solve domestic political and economic problems.
Failure to do that can only result in one historical assessment — ineptitude.
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
A 50-year-old on Wednesday last week died while under anesthesia at a Taipei cosmetic clinic shortly after undergoing a penis enlargement procedure. The surgeon was arrested for suspected medical malpractice, again bringing to the surface shortcomings in the regulation of cosmetic medicine. Media reports said the clinic owner and surgeon, surnamed Ting (丁), was previously convicted of negligent homicide for a postsurgical death and had been charged with coercion and aggravated assault after allegedly stopping a patient from calling for an ambulance. He had also been fined for failing inspections and had allegedly permitted people without medical licenses to assist
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
An American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesperson on Saturday rebuked a Chinese official for mischaracterizing World War II-era agreements as proving that Taiwan was ceded to China. The US Department of State later affirmed that the AIT remarks reflect Washington’s long-standing position: Taiwan’s political status remains undetermined and should only be resolved peacefully. The US would continue supporting Taiwan against military, economic, legal and diplomatic pressure from China, and opposes any unilateral attempt to alter the “status quo,” particularly through coercion or force, the United Daily News cited the department as saying. The remarks followed Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs
RSS