The Presidential Office yesterday accused Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of being “hostile” to the Republic of China (ROC) after she criticized the administration’s multi-billion-NT dollar plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ROC.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said that while Tsai had a right to not support the government’s plan to celebrate the founding of the ROC, she did not have to be so “sarcastic.”
“She keeps saying she loves Taiwan, but just look at how she sees our country’s 100th birthday,” Lo said. “What she said shows her enmity to the ROC and its 100th birthday. There is a big gap between her feeling and that of the general public.”
Lo made the remarks in response to a report published by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday. The report quoted Tsai as saying that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) comment on the NT$3.2 billion (US$100.2 million) budget earmarked for the year-long celebration was inappropriate and that there was a wide gap between what he thought and how the public felt.
“Whether the budget is exorbitant is a matter of public sentiment,” she was quoted as saying. “In a time of economic downturn, most people would think the money was a little bit too much.”
Ma said on Friday the NT$3.2 billion allocated for the year-long activities was “not too much” compared with the World Games hosted by Kaohsiung City in July last year and the Deaflympics hosted by Taipei City in September last year.
Lo said that while some media reported the celebration activities would cost NT$3.2 billion, the Council for Cultural Affairs has put the cost at about NT$2 billion.
If Tsai thought NT$2 billion was excessive, Lo said he would respect her views. However, Tsai seemed to be overly sensitive and applied double standards to Kaohsiung’s World Games and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ROC, Lo said, adding that the 11-day World Games cost NT$10.5 billion.
Lo said the central government never criticized the budget for the World Games, but if Tsai continued to attack the funding of the centennial, it would only reflect her political machinations and resentment against national celebrations.
Also yesterday, Ma quoted Taiwanese democracy trailblazer Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) in a call for politicians across partisan lines to demonstrate esprit de corps for the cause of the nation.
Paraphrasing a famous couplet by Chiang that reads: “The compatriots must come together in unity. Unity is truly invincible,” Ma said in his weekly video program that partisan rancor has not only taken a toll on the nation’s resources, it has also held up the country’s growth and development.
“These are points of contention that have disillusioned the people,” the president said.
He called for everyone in Taiwan not to forget the bitter lessons that the country has learned from political strife over the past years.
“We should exercise greater tolerance and magnanimity toward each other, so that we can unite and strive in concert to create a brighter future for Taiwan,” he continued.
He also saluted Chiang as not only a political pioneer, but also a social reformer with global perspective.
He repeated Chiang’s saying that “Taiwan’s career is to serve as a guard on the frontline of world peace.”
To achieve that goal, Taiwan must change culturally from the roots up, Chiang said.
Chiang led the way for the first political movement and the first cultural enlightenment movement in Taiwan during the period of Japanese colonial rule. While practicing medicine at the hospital he founded in Taipei, he diagnosed Taiwan itself and concluded that the people of Taiwan were afflicted with “knowledge malnutrition,” so he began to devote himself to the nationalist movement.
Founder of the Taiwan Cultural Association and the Taiwan People’s Party, Chiang was one of the first people who tried to lift the status of the Taiwanese during Japanese rule through the formation of democratic political movements.
He died of typhoid at the age of 40.
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