The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday dismissed President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) proposal that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait put an end to decades of hostility, calling the idea wishful thinking.
Outgoing DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) described Ma’s inaugural address as “uninspiring.”
Hsieh expressed concern over Ma’s cross-strait policy, warning that it is naive to think “a tiger will not eat a rabbit if the rabbit sings and dances to entertain the tiger.”
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
After Beijing’s obstruction of Taiwan’s latest bid to join the WHO this year, Hsieh said it was unrealistic to think that China would assist and respect Taiwan’s bid to join any international organization.
The DPP will closely monitor the words and deeds of the new administration, he said, and will work to prevent any compromise on national sovereignty.
Hsieh also criticized Ma’s inauguration speech, saying it was unnecessary to dismiss the achievements of the DPP government and that Ma had insulted the 5.44 million people who voted for the DPP in the presidential election.
Speaking at a separate setting, DPP deputy caucus whip Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said Ma had highlighted the nation’s financial aid and relief supplies to China following last week’s earthquake, while failing to express any objection to China’s deployment of missiles against Taiwan and its obstruction at the WHO.
Kuan said Ma’s statement that there would be no revisions to the Republic of China’s Constitution under his administration indicated that the referendum and election systems would escape reform, allowing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to maintain its position as the dominant party.
“This not only demonstrates the KMT’s egoism, but also signals a slowdown in Taiwan’s democratic development,” she said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said Ma had failed to stress the nation’s sovereignty while addressing cross-strait relations during his inauguration speech.
The KMT caucus, meanwhile, lauded Ma’s address.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said Ma’s speech demonstrated his wisdom, tenderness and tolerance.
“I believe the world will feel that [this speech] represents a major improvement in cross-strait relations,” he said.
Wu shrugged off the DPP’s criticism of the speech, urging the party not to misinterpret the nation’s goodwill toward China by saying that the president had belittled Taiwan.
Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), also caucus deputy secretary-general, said the content of the speech reflected Ma’s “pragmatic” stance on cross-strait issues.
“In contrast to the restricted cross-strait relations during Chen Shui-bian’s [陳水扁] terms, Ma has taken Taiwan’s dignity into consideration while showing goodwill to China [in the speech],” she said.
However, KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) was critical of Ma’s speech, saying that the content was not “penetrating” and “appealing” enough.
Chiu said Ma failed to touch on issues that have a direct impact on people’s lives, such as inflation and soaring commodity prices, nor how he intended to fulfill his campaign promises to achieve annual economic growth of 6 percent, boost per capita income to US$30,000 by 2016 and bring the unemployment rate down to 3 percent.
Meanwhile, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) blasted Ma for not mentioning the rights of Aborigines in his inauguration speech, calling the new head of state indifferent to the subject.
“We suspect that Ma does not care about the Aboriginal community because [in his speech] he only thanked Hoklos for their support. We demand that Ma apologize for the 400 year-long oppression of the Aboriginal community by Han Chinese,” said Chin, a member of the Atayal tribe.
The tearful Chin said the Aboriginal community was sorely disappointed by Ma’s speech because “we had high hopes that he would not repeat the mistakes of the past administration by neglecting the rights of our people.”
More than 70 percent of Aboriginal voters supported Ma in the election, she said, “but it is obvious that Ma only has the economy in mind.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND CNA
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,