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Ma promises to listen to complaints

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised yesterday that his administration would reflect on its performance and make an effort to narrow the gap between its policies and public expectations.

Ma made the remarks at a luncheon with Examination Yuan members at the Taipei Guest House, his first public response to the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets on Saturday to demand the government protect national sovereignty, improve the economy and pass “sunshine laws.”

Ma said the public has great expectations for his administration, but soaring prices for oil and imported goods have challenged his campaign promise to improve the economy.

Although his campaign pledges were long-range, Ma said his administration would listen to the people and make an effort to improve the situation.

Although organizers said more than 300,000 people turned up at the rally, Ma said the event attracted only 50,000 people.

Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said later that Ma had simply “cited the number given by the Taipei City police.”

Ma said he agreed with the demands of protesters, because his administration also wanted to protect the nation’s sovereignty, revive the economy and promote transparent politics.

Wang said the government has made efforts to ensure safety and integrity since taking office and that they would mark “sunshine laws” as priority bills during the next legislative session.

“Except for ideology, the president supports the protesters’ demands,” Wang said.

Ma also vowed to push government reform to upgrade government competitiveness. To strengthen the training of civil servants, he floated the idea of testing applicants’ English in national examinations.

Later yesterday, the Taiwan Society, which organized the rally, issued a list of demands. It asked Ma to apologize for failing to fulfill his “6-3-3” economic goals, give up his salary for not realizing his election promises, pass “sunshine laws” within six months, issue taxpayers a rebate and let Taiwanese decide the future of cross-strait relations.

In his “633” economic goals, Ma proposed to drive up the annual economic growth rate to 6 percent,annual per capita income of US$30,000 by 2016 and keep the unemployment rate at less than 3 percent.

Wang did not give direct answers to the first two demands, saying only that the administration would make efforts to put them into practice.

Regarding the “sunshine laws,” Wang said the administration would make efforts to pass the bills but stopped short of promising to doing so in the period requested.

On the issuing of a tax rebate, Wang said it was a public issue and deserved more debate. As for the last demand concerning cross-strait relations, Wang said that as the country has transformed itself into a democracy, the people of Taiwan have always had a say in the democratic institution.
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