A public opinion poll has found that a majority of respondents disapprove of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) pushing the cross-strait service trade agreement through the legislature and do not understand his free economic pilot zones project.
The latest poll conducted by the pro-independence Taiwan Brain Trust found that 60.2 percent of respondents did not support Ma telling the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to push for the passage of the controversial trade pact in the extra legislative session that begins tomorrow, the think tank said yesterday.
Ma had promised during the Sunflower movement protests that the pact would not be screened before a monitoring mechanism for cross-strait negotiations and agreements is established.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Most people appeared to have been skeptical about the free economic pilot zones project, which aims to serve as a model for business liberalization, with 85 percent of respondents saying that they did not understand the project well and 91.5 percent urging the government to clearly explain it to the public, think tank chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said.
The president’s most recent approval rating was 21.6 percent and his disapproval rating was 66.7 percent, while the KMT’s disapproval rating was 63.6 percent and 35.4 percent of respondents said the party was their least favorite political party, Wu said.
Meanwhile, more than half of those polled (53.1 percent) said the Sunflower movement has had a positive impact on Taiwan’s future democratic development, which was interesting, given that Ma and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) have said the protesters’ behavior was illegal and undemocratic, Wu said.
He said the most surprising finding of the survey was the high rate of support (75.1 percent) for drafting a new constitution.
The poll, which the think tank conducts quarterly, has questions on several basic issues regarding Taiwan’s identity, support for independence and support for unification.
The latest survey also found increasing grassroots awareness and support for a Taiwanese identity, especially among young people, think tank official said.
More than half (60.5 percent) of respondents identify themselves as Taiwanese — the highest level in the past five surveys since June last year — while those who identify themselves as both Taiwanese and Chinese (32.8 percent) hit a new low, the poll found.
The percentage of those identifying themselves as Chinese remained very low (2.9 percent), the poll showed.
In comparison with the results of the March poll, the percentage of respondents identifying themselves as Taiwanese rose from 64.6 percent to 72.9 percent in the 20-29 age group and from 54.2 percent to 63.2 percent in the 30-39 age group.
Think tank founder Koo Kuan-ming (辜寬敏) said a close examination of the survey results showed that young Taiwanese are no longer uninterested in politics.
Young people also believe that “Ma’s authoritarianism under the disguise of democracy is so unbearable that they will do whatever is necessary to fight it,” Koo said.
The survey was conducted between Thursday and Saturday last week. A total of 1,072 valid samples were collected and the poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
RSS