Dozens of netizens vented their anger yesterday over what they said was President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “cold-blooded political persecution” of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) through “illegal, unconstitutional and inhumane” means, with some launching an online signature drive demanding the president’s immediate resignation.
The initiator of the signature drive, who identified himself as a swing voter, said that demanding Ma’s resignation was the “obligation and responsibility of every Taiwanese who loves this country and has a good sense of judgement of what is right and wrong, and of shame.”
“To take down his political enemies, Ma, despite being the head of state of this country, has resorted to illegal, unconstitutional and inhumane tactics and stepped beyond the mandate bestowed upon him by the Constitution by wiretapping the legislative speaker [Wang] and the leader of the opposition party caucus [Democratic Progressive Party caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘)],” the petition read.
Not only has the president tried to justify his illegitimate conduct, he has also used information obtained during the illegal wiretap operation to carry out a political vendetta against Wang and used his subjective judgement to unilaterally declare Wang guilty, the signature drive said.
“Ma’s behavior is the biggest disgrace to Taiwan’s democratic development and we [the public] must ask him to step down before the nation sinks into an indefinite period of darkness,” the petition said.
The petition had received backing from nearly 16,000 netizens as of press time.
Meanwhile, other Internet users also criticized Ma for reportedly saying that Wang should be stripped of his Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) membership for “tarnishing the party’s image and reputation” during a meeting of the KMT’s 15-member Disciplinary Committee held yesterday to discuss Wang’s fate.
The meeting reached a consensus to revoke Wang’s membership after deliberating for two hours and 20 minutes.
Sources say Ma, who is KMT chairman, was choked with tears as he made a 10-minute speech at the committee meeting, in which he said he was “too saddened by Wang’s involvement in illegal lobbying to be able to sleep.”
The legislative speaker is embroiled in an alleged influence-peddling case involving several prominent political figures, including Ker and former minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), who resigned on Friday last week over the matter.
“It’s obvious that Ma has been trying to take down Wang since the very beginning. He [Ma] is such a hypocrite,” one netizen wrote.
Another said maybe it was the overwhelming joy of finally being able to remove Wang that had been keeping Ma up at night.
Some netizens also ridiculed the president for his unusually tough stance on the incident, saying that it seemed as if he was only capable of and passionate about launching political vendetta, instead of handling economic problems as he is supposed to.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS