President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has performed poorly during his time in office; his campaign slogan “total government, total responsibility” is nothing but empty words. Ma is a true politician. He excels in taking credit for things that go right and passing the buck when they go wrong.
Ma exploits former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for his own political benefit, using him to foment ethnic tensions through Chen’s continued imprisonment. As a result, non-violent democratic reforms have been tainted by confrontation between the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and opposition camps. Although Ma named the plaza at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building the “democratic plaza against corruption,” it should have been called the “corruption plaza against democracy.” What an embarrassment.
Ma has placed his hopes in China, his great benefactor, depending on Beijing, while putting Taiwan’s sovereignty at risk. Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to bully the Republic of China (ROC). On Monday, China’s Global Times even mocked Ma as a “local government head” after he expressed support for the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
With the nine-in-one elections approaching, now is a good time for voters to scrutinize Ma’s political record. Some say that the nation cannot make progress until the KMT collapses.
The KMT nominated former Kaohsiung County commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), who left the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and National University of Tainan president Huang Hsiu-shuang (黃秀霜) for the Kaohsiung and Tainan mayoral elections respectively.
However, their support ratings are significantly lower than those of the DPP’s Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), who are both running for re-election.
In Greater Taichung, DPP mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) support ratings are also much higher than those of the KMT’s Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), who is running for re-election.
As for Taipei City, independent mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is an “atypical” candidate, having formed a “grand opposition coalition,” and has a high degree of support among younger voters and women. He has surpassed the blue and green camps on the political map, with higher support ratings than the KMT’s mayoral candidate, Sean Lien (連戰), who has been abandoned by some KMT members.
However, some KMT politicians have attempted to create friction between the blue and green camps to help Lien by stirring up the party’s supporters. Even the KMT’s Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), after being repeatedly insulted by Ma, recently said that Lien is likely to win the Taipei mayoral election. Is he serious?
In order to save the KMT, the nation should let the party fail, so it can wake up and understand the true meaning of democracy. Voters should terminate KMT rule so a new nation can be born. Then, as the ROC transforms into a new nation named Taiwan, it can end the PRC’s ambition to annex the ROC.
If the KMT suffers a major defeat in the elections, the party would have to review itself before the 2016 presidential and legislative elections. This might change the evil KMT regime, and the fake nation named the ROC.
The recent food safety scandals reflect the poor health of the nation’s politics. To address the problem from the roots, the KMT should be removed from power. The public must distinguish between right and wrong, and in doing so, it can make progress toward a promising new nation.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry