Most Taiwanese are unhappy with almost every aspect of the nation and are pessimistic about the future, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) remains highly unpopular, an opinion poll shows.
The year-end survey, conducted by the Taiwan Thinktank between Wednesday and Friday, polled people on a wide range of topics and the results reflected the “collective anxiety and pessimism” of Taiwanese, Citizen Congress Watch executive director Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華) told a press conference yesterday.
A majority of respondents were not satisfied with the increasing wealth gap, with 89.1 percent expressing concerns over stagnant wages, while the tax system, judicial system and media reporting received unsatisfactory ratings in all five categories, exceeding 64 percent.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
In terms of economics, 84.7 of respondents said Taiwan had experienced a bad year, with 68.1 percent saying jobs had been hard to find.
Most people, or 63.9 percent, were pessimistic about next year. Among eight profession categories listed in the questionnaire, civil servants, including military, police and government employees, was the only category with more than half of the respondents expressing optimism about next year.
“It showed that currently, Taiwanese have ‘three noes’ — no confidence, no trust in the government and no faith,” Ku said.
The increase in fuel and electricity prices was named by 45.6 percent of respondents as the single incident with the greatest impact this year, followed by the year-end bonus for retired civil servants and the capital gains tax on stock transactions.
The Ma administration has failed to come up with any substantial measures to boost domestic demand and reduce unemployment in the last three quarters after a misreading of the year’s economic outlook in the first quarter, National Taiwan University professor Kenneth Lin (林向愷) said.
According to Lin, the Ma administration’s stimulus plan, which focused on lower-cost and labor-intensive industries, demonstrated a mindset that belonged to the government of the 1980s.
The solution should be assisting industries with automation and gaining technological advantages, he said.
The widespread discontent with the government was why Ma’s high disapproval rating of 68.2 percent was not a surprise, despite improving slightly from the 70.5 percent in the think tank’s survey last month.
The poll found that most respondents did not support Ma doubling as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, with 80.9 percent — including 58.7 percent of those who identified as pan-blue supporters — saying Ma should give up the post.
Asked who would be the best candidate to serve as KMT chairman, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) received the most support with 28.2 percent, followed by New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) at 22.1 percent.
Former EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文), a son of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), ranked third with 16 percent.
However, the survey found that Ma’s unpopularity did not translate into an advantage for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), despite 55.7 percent of respondents expressing support for a massive demonstration against Ma on Jan. 13 organized by the party.
While the DPP led the KMT by more than 10 percentage points in the approval ratings for political parties, the party garnered only 30.7 percent of support, with 57 percent of respondents saying they were not satisfied with the DPP’s performance.
Only 18.9 percent of those polled said they still backed the KMT, while 73 percent of the respondents were dissatisfied.
The survey collected 1,073 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS