A majority of Taiwanese said they did not feel more proud to be a citizen of the Republic of China (ROC) after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May 2008, a poll released by the Taiwan Thinktank ahead of Double Ten National Day showed yesterday.
The poll showed that 65 percent of respondents said they had not felt their sense of pride as an ROC citizen grow after Ma assumed office, while 31.3 percent said they had.
Among respondents who claimed they did not have any political affiliation, about 75 percent said they did not feel more proud to be an ROC citizen, according to the poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday by the think tank, which is generally perceived to be more sympathetic to the pan-green camp.
PHOTO: CNA
While the Ma administration has planned various activities this year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ROC next year, nearly 59 percent said they did not know about the government’s efforts against 41.5 percent who said they did.
About 96 percent said they did not feel a sense of involvement in the celebrations, against 3.8 percent who said they did. The feeling was reported among pan-blue and pan-green supporters, as well as moderate voters.
Tung Li-wen (董立文), a professor at the Graduate School of Public Security at Central Police University, said the results of the survey were not surprising because the Ma administration’s policies had made the public anxious about their future and lose their confidence in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) governance.
“People can hardly feel proud when the government talks about the ‘1992 consensus’ and the president of this country does not mind being called ‘Mister,’” he said.
Tung attributed the declining sense of pride to the polarization of ethnic identification and an unclear national spirit.
People also feel less proud because when they wanted to express their patriotism by holding the national flag, singing the national anthem or saying the country’s name out loud, they were prevented from doing so, Tung said.
“Oh, please, it’s Double Ten Day, and we can’t even fly our national flag,” Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political scientist at Soochow University, said, mimicking the tone of former Executive Yuan secretary-general Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川).
Hsueh complained that it was Father’s Day, when he was harshly criticized for dining with his father while the south was ravaged by Typhoon Morakot in August last year.
Hsu was referring to the incident at the Asian University Basketball Championship on Thursday. Spectators were asked to fold up the ROC national flag they were waving on the bleachers. The Chinese team withdrew from a game on Friday when they saw hundreds of ROC national flags from the campus’ parking lots all the way to the bleachers, an initiative undertaken by Taiwanese students in response to Thursday’s incident.
Hsu urged the government to refrain from using the ROC centennial as a pretext for drumming up support for KMT candidates in next month’s municipality elections.
Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive board member at the think tank, said that pride in one’s nationality comes from two areas: government efforts to protect sovereignty and a democratic system. However, both have become problematic issues under Ma’s leadership, he said.
Former deputy National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信) added that the new term “pride of Taiwan” given to outstanding individuals reflected a certain lack of self-confidence and apprehension about identity.
The poll questioned 1,046 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
The zero emissions ship Porrima P111 was launched yesterday in Kaohsiung, showcasing the nation’s advancement in green technology, city Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. The nation last year acquired the Swiss-owned vessel, formerly known as Turanor PlanetSolar, in a bid to boost Taiwan’s technology sector, as well as ecotourism in Palau, Chen said at the ship’s launch ceremony at Singda Harbor. Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event. The original vessel was the first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the globe in a voyage from 2010 to 2012. Taiwan-based Porrima Inc (保利馬) installed upgrades with
ENHANCE DETERRENCE: Taiwan has to display ‘fierce resolve’ to defend itself for China to understand that the costs of war outweigh potential gains, Koo said Taiwan’s armed forces must reach a high level of combat readiness by 2027 to effectively deter a potential Chinese invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published yesterday. His comments came three days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the US Senate that deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan requires making a conflict “cost more than what it’s worth.” Rubio made the remarks in response to a question about US policy on Taiwan’s defense from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who said that Chinese