A public opinion poll released yesterday showed most people do not trust lawmakers and law enforcement officials, and believe that not even a change of administration would change the situation.
Asked whether the judiciary is able to safeguard social justice and fairness, 69.1 percent of respondents said no, while only 17 percent said yes and 13.9 percent did not give an answer, the poll by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research showed.
The survey also found that 58.7 percent did not think law enforcement officials — including police, prosecutors and Investigation Bureau agents — enforced the law fairly, while 30.6 percent thought they did and 10.8 percent gave no answer.
Most respondents appeared to have given up on having a respectable judicial system, with 78.8 percent saying they did not believe there would ever be an independent judicial system in Taiwan, regardless of whether the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is in power.
As for the Legislative Yuan, most respondents appeared suspicious of lawmakers’ motives and interests.
Asked about KMT lawmakers, 24.6 percent of respondents said they work for the interests of their own families and factions, followed by corporates and specific interest groups at 23.6 percent and the KMT at 21.5 percent. Only 6.9 percent said KMT lawmakers have the interests of all people in mind and 6 percent said they work for their constituencies.
Trust in DPP lawmakers was also low, but respondents’ view on whose interests they uphold varies slightly. Working for the interests of their own families and factions also ranked first at 24.9 percent, followed by the DPP at 24.4 percent. However, only 8 percent linked DPP lawmakers with corporations and specific interest groups, while 14.9 percent believed they had the public interest in mind.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) approval rating plunged again after showing signs of life last month.
Ma had an approval rating of 14.8 percent, down 6.3 percentage points from the poll last month, and a disapproval rating of 74.3 percent, up 7.1 percentage points from last month.
Asked if Ma could crack down on corruption and build a clean government, 73.8 percent of respondents said he would not be able to do that.
Ma’s latest credibility rating was 18 percent, with 66.5 percent of those who took part in the poll saying they did not find Ma trustworthy.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) approval rating also dropped to 15.6 percent, 3.7 percentage points lower from the previous poll.
The survey, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday last week, collected 1,008 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The Han Kuang exercises, the nation’s major war games, are to start today and run for five days. The drills are to include a military aircraft emergency takeoff and landing exercise on a regular roadway on Wednesday, featuring all three fighter jet models in Taiwan’s fleet, a military source said last week. The drill is to begin at 6:30am on a 3km section of Provincial Highway No. 1 in Pingtung County’s Jiadong Township (佳冬), and feature an Indigenous Defense Fighter, an F-16V, a Mirage 2000-5 and an E-2K Hawkeye early warning aircraft, the source said. The emergency landing and takeoff drill aims to
MRNA VACCINE: Heart inflammation is rare, but possible after a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, and students need to be aware of possible side effects, an expert said As Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations for students aged 12 to 17 are to begin on campuses on Thursday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday urged recipients to be especially watchful for five signs of possible myocarditis or pericarditis, which are rare adverse reactions to some COVID-19 vaccines. The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convener Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) joined the CECC’s daily news briefing to report on possible side effects after receiving a BioNTech vaccine. Lee said that cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been observed in people in the US who have received mRNA COVID-19
Taiwan on Friday accused China of seeking to use the Honduran election to “create controversy” and undermine Taiwan’s long-standing ties with the country, saying it would strive to win support for Honduras’ relations with Taipei. Honduras’ main left-wing opposition party, the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), led by ousted former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, has said that if it wins November’s presidential election it would seek to “readjust” the country’s debt and establish diplomatic relations with China. Honduras is one of 15 UN member countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has already warned Honduras not
WORKING TOGETHER: Masahisa Sato said that the Liberal Democratic Party is aiming to share ideas about Taiwan-related policies and improve ties with Taiwan Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly being threatened by China, and like-minded nations should work together to resist such threats, Japanese politicians said. Japanese House of Representatives members Keiji Furuya and Masahisa Sato made the comments in a video played on Friday at a conference held by the Taiwan Japan Academy in Taipei. Furuya praised President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration for its efforts in reinforcing exchanges with countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia through the New Southbound Policy. Taiwan also has interests in the Pacific Islands region, but they have come under threat from China in the past few years,
RSS