More than 60 percent of respondents in a poll support the idea of allowing former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to receive medical treatment at home and many find it unacceptable that the government refuses to grant him medical parole, the Taiwanese Association for Pacific Ocean Development said.
The group, which commissioned the poll on “Taiwanese people’s attitude toward Chen’s case,” said that the survey shows that 64 percent of respondents backed home medical treatment for Chen, against 23 percent who opposed the idea.
In addition, 59.7 percent of respondents did not approve of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s rejection of calls that Chen be granted medical parole as opposed to 20.6 percent who approved of Ma’s decision, association president You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“Those who thought that Chen did not receive a fair judgement [41 percent] also outnumbered those who believed he did [32 percent],” he added.
Comparing the performance of the past and current presidents, 47 percent of respondents thought Chen did better than Ma, and 21 percent believed otherwise, the survey showed.
More people expressed their approval of Chen’s performance over his eight-year rule (47 percent) than those who said they were dissatisfied (38 percent).
However, more people disagreed with the idea that Chen’s case was a victim of political persecution, at 48 percent, than the 37 percent who agreed, and while 39 percent believed Ma was responsible in the trial of Chen’s case, 46 percent disagreed.
Meanwhile, 45 percent said that amnesty is the only way to solve the controversy about Chen’s case, but 42 percent disagreed.
In general, public opinion seems to show more sympathy toward Chen’s situation after he left office, instead of resentment or condemnation, You said.
About half of the respondents said the Democratic Progressive Party has been indifferent and overly passive about Chen’s situation, he added.
Political pundit Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔), who supports medical parole for Chen, said he found the poll upsetting, as it shows that there are still many who oppose leniency or amnesty for Chen.
There is a disturbing element in Chinese culture called “moral fascism,” or the tendency to discredit or denigrate people accused of a moral crime, Nang Fang Shuo said, adding that whoever speaks in favor of the accused are viewed as accomplices in crime.
The One Bear Museum in Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), a teddy bear museum once touted by the county government as a “luminous pearl” along Provincial Highway No. 13, is facing possible closure. The museum’s building, which was provided by the county government, has a serious water leakage problem and lacks a parking lot for buses to bring in tour groups, Hsinchu County Councilor Lo Shih-shi (羅仕琦) said on Saturday. The county government should step in to rescue the museum, or the negative reviews about the museum on the Internet might affect visitors’ impression of the township and the county, he said. The
‘HONEYMOON’ IS OVER: A political science professor said that the Tsai administration’s popularity peaked after it successfully contained COVID-19, but is waning President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) approval ratings fell significantly this month in the wake of the government’s handling of the distribution of relief funds and stimulus coupons to people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll released yesterday by the New Power Party (NPP) showed. The poll showed that 68 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Tsai’s performance, down 8.9 percentage points from last month, while 21 percent said they disapproved of her performance. Her approval among respondents aged 20 to 29 fell 14.7 percentage points, the largest decrease when compared with other age
Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), wife of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), yesterday said that the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) claim that Taiwan had warned the WHO about possible human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 was “far-fetched.” The US on April 9 said that the WHO had put politics first and ignored Taiwan’s early warning in December last year, which the WHO denied the following day. The WHO said that it received an e-mail from Taiwanese authorities on Dec. 31 last year, but that “there was no mention in the message of human-to-human transmission.” Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC,
Food delivery provider Foodpanda had 564 consumer disputes from January to last month and failed to attend many mediation sessions with local governments nationwide, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee said. In a news release earlier this month, the committee said that it investigated consumer complaints and mediations for Foodpanda and rival Uber Eats during the period, when the number of delivery orders jumped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Uber Eats had 80 consumer disputes, the committee said. Of Foodpanda’s consumer disputes, 368 resulted from delivery drivers canceling orders after customers could not be reached, 108 were related to the quality or quantity
RSS