More than half of respondents in a survey published yesterday said that if President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) were a brand, his brand personality would be that of an “over-packaged product” with “exaggerated claims of effectiveness.”
The three most chosen descriptions of Ma’s brand were all negative, with 60.6 percent of participants saying Ma was “over-packaged,” 53.3 percent saying his abilities were “exaggerated” and 38.5 percent seeing him as “an expired, deteriorating product” in the survey conducted by research firm Taiwan Indicators Survey Research.
The newly established company, headed by former Global Views Survey Research Center director Tai Li-an (戴立安), released its first Taiwan Mood Barometer Survey, which Tai said would be conducted twice a month and cover various economic and political issues.
Ma’s unpopularity was reflected in the poll, with 57.4 percent of respondents saying the president was not trustworthy and 67.5 percent disapproving of his performance.
Even 47.4 percent of those who identified themselves as pan-blue supporters were unsatisfied with Ma’s performance, Tai said.
Tai also said Ma’s leadership ability had been in doubt after a series of controversial policies on US beef imports, capital gains taxation and fuel and electricity price hikes.
Ma’s current level of credibility was a far cry from his days as Taipei mayor, Tai said, adding that 68.2 percent of respondents in an August 2004 poll had said Ma was a trustworthy leader.
“It seems to us that President Ma, who begins his second term in office on May 20, will face both a ‘credibility crisis’ and a ‘leadership crisis’ in the next four years,” Tai said.
The lack of confidence in the president shows in people’s reluctance to support his China policy, with 58.2 percent of respondents saying political or military negotiations between Taiwan and China are unnecessary in the next four years.
In addition, 24.7 percent agreed with more extensive cross-strait negotiations in the future, down from 43.2 percent in November 2008.
Only 14.4 percent of those surveyed said Ma’s re-election would further relax Beijing’s ambition to annex Taiwan, while 25.8 percent said China would become even more aggressive and 46.5 percent expected no change.
The poll also found that views on Taiwan’s economic outlook were dismal, with 84.3 percent of respondents saying that the economy was bad.
Premier Sean Chen’s (陳冲) approval rating was 21.8 percent after three months in office, the poll showed.
Chen’s satisfaction ratings were comparatively lower than those of his two predecessors’, former premiers Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who averaged an approval rating of 34 percent after their first three months in office, Tai said.
The poll, conducted between Sunday and Tuesday, was drawn from 1,701 respondents with a margin of error of 3 percent.
Tai’s resignation from the Global View poll center during the presidential campaign in October last year caught the public’s attention after the release of a public opinion poll which was unfavorable toward Ma.
Tai declined to comment yesterday whether he had resigned due to political pressure on him and his former employer.
Separately yesterday, Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said the Presidential Office would take all poll results as references and promised to reflect on the government’s performance with humility.
Ma, who will be sworn in for his second term on May 20, is faced with record-low support in opinion polls and growing challenges from within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over recent policies.
Ma previously brushed aside such concerns and said the government is determined to push forward reforms. Yesterday he declined to comment on his waning support.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can