Ma gets mixed reviews on sex-industry claims

Politicians are split on Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) boasting of his success in cracking down on the sex industry.

In a recent interview with a Chinese-language newspaper, Ma commented that his efforts to eradicate the sex industry have been far more successful than those of his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Citing statistics to support his statement, Ma said that in 1999, his first year as mayor, the city government shut down 94 establishments that were found to have offered sex services by cutting off their water and electricity.

"That was 47 times more than what Chen did. In 1998 [the city government] had only done so with two such establishments," Ma was quoted as saying in the interview.

Reacting to Ma's remarks, KMT Taipei City Councilor Li Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said she approves of Ma's efforts to eradicate the city's sex industry.

"Judging from Ma's statistics, there is no doubt that Ma and his team have been doing their job in stamping out the city's sex industry," Li said, adding that the fight against the sex industry has been going on for a long time.

Lin Chin-chang (林晉章), another KMT city councilor, echoed Li's comment, saying that the little fliers with flashy photos advertising sexual services that used to be seen four years ago have disappeared under Ma's leadership.

"Though we've noticed that they [the fliers] are now being replaced by small stickers with just a phone number printed on it, at least that shows that the sex industry is no longer as arrogant as it was four years ago," Lin said.

While both Li and Lin said Ma's fight against the sex industry surpassed Chen's efforts, other councilors held a different view of Ma's remarks.

DPP Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) said that the statistic cited by Ma, "has ironically shown that Ma and his team have been incompetent in their fight to eradicate the city's sex industry."

"While all it took for Chen was to cut off two [sex-service] establishments' water and electricity to serve as warning to halt other establishments from offering sex services, Ma and his team so far have done so with numerous establishments, yet the move doesn't seem to have served as a warning to prevent other such establishments from staying open," Wang said.

DPP Taipei City Councilor Lee Chien-chan (李建昌) agreed with Wang and said that whether Ma's "sex industry eradication movement" is more successful than Chen's campaign ought not to be judged by statistics alone.

"People's impressions ought to be based on more than what the numbers say," Lee said. "In fact, according to several polls, Taipei residents are more unsatisfied with Ma's handling of the problems related to the city's sex industry than any other issue."