A majority of respondents found neither President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) nor Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) credible and do not trust the fairness of law enforcement officials, according to the results of a survey carried out by Taiwan Indicate Survey Research (TISR) which was released yesterday.
The research, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, found that only 32.7 percent of respondents said they trust Ma while 53.1 percent said they do not trust the president.
Only 24.3 percent of those polled found Wu, who has been embroiled in an alleged corruption case centered around former Legislative Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世), credible, while 60.6 percent said the vice president is not trustworthy.
Leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) outperformed the most powerful duo in the country in the credibility test, with 45.3 percent of respondents saying they trust DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and 49.4 percent saying that former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is credible.
A more detailed breakdown found that Ma and Wu appeared to have lost the support of many of those who consider themselves to be swing voters.
Among this group, only 25.4 percent said Ma is credible and 14.2 percent placed their trust in Wu. By comparison, 44.2 percent of swing voters said they trust Tsai and 35.9 percent found Su credible.
The survey also found that 65.4 percent of the respondents said they disagreed that law enforcement officials — including police officers, prosecutors and criminal investigators — have upheld justice and fairness in carrying out their duties. Only 24.9 percent of those polled agreed.
Comparing the survey with a pair of similar polls conducted in 2006 and 2009, public trust in the judiciary and law enforcement system has been consistently sliding, dropping from 35.8 percent in 2006 to 29.9 percent in 2009 and 24.9 percent this year, TISR general manager Tai Li-an (戴立安) said in a press release.
Asked whether the judicial system was able to uphold justice and fairness, 63.3 percent of respondents disagreed, while 24.3 percent agreed.
The survey also found Ma’s latest approval ratings still hovering around the low 20s at 22.6 percent, with Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) doing slightly better at 24.1 percent.
The poll collected 1,010 valid samples and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS