President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) popularity rose slightly last month to 26.6 percent, according to the latest poll by the Chinese-language Global Views (遠見) magazine, an increase of 2.8 percent from a month earlier.
Despite the increase, last month’s figure means that Ma’s approval ratings have remained below 30 percent for 19 consecutive months, since just four months into his term — a disastrous run by any standards.
When Ma swept to power with almost 60 percent of the vote in March 2008, he inherited a functioning democracy and an economy that could almost run on autopilot. The global financial crisis aside, it is hard to fathom how he could have made such a mess of things and how his popularity could fall so far, so fast.
True, the Ma administration has made many serious foulups, including the bungled handling of the melamine-tainted milk scare, Typhoon Morakot rescue and relief efforts and US beef imports.
Nevertheless, memories are short in politics and now that these issues are mostly in the past, one would think his popularity would show at least some signs of returning to a more respectable level.
Instead, it remains even lower than one could imagine, given that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) can usually rely on a hardcore support level of around 40 percent of the electorate.
Despite this, the president remains in denial. In a recent interview, Ma put his dismal approval ratings down to his efforts at “reform.”
It’s hard to fathom what reform he was referring to, but if rewarding incompetence — former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起) were presented medals after stepping down in disgrace — counts as reform, then the reform efforts are going well.
Try as he might to find excuses, Ma continues to ignore the 500kg gorilla in the room, and the most likely explanation for his current plight is his cross-strait policy.
Since his inauguration, Ma has plunged Taiwan headfirst into China’s bosom.
Whatever Taiwan’s problem, China is the answer, if the Ma administration is to be believed. In his dealings with Beijing, Ma has effectively turned Taiwan into a vassal state of China. This is perfectly illustrated by the WHA observership arrangement — Taiwan gets rewarded with an annual invitation so long as it does nothing to upset Beijing.
Given China’s record of skullduggery and reneging on agreements, Ma should know better than to place all of Taiwan’s eggs in one basket. However, under Ma, Taiwan has placed all of its eggs and even those yet to be laid in China’s untrustworthy hands.
If cross-strait policy is in fact the reason for his unpopularity, then Ma is not willing to admit it, but the fact that Global Views this month chose to omit its regular poll on subjects such as the government’s plan to sign the controversial economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China indicates that this may well be the case.
Still, Ma pushes on blindly with the ECFA plan, hoping to rush through signing it within the next two months. Given his ability to ignore the warning signs, an ECFA looks like it will be signed on time, but should Ma lose his re-election bid in 2012, he will have no one but himself to blame.
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
Small and medium enterprises make up the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, yet large corporations such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) play a crucial role in shaping its industrial structure, economic development and global standing. The company reported a record net profit of NT$374.68 billion (US$11.41 billion) for the fourth quarter last year, a 57 percent year-on-year increase, with revenue reaching NT$868.46 billion, a 39 percent increase. Taiwan’s GDP last year was about NT$24.62 trillion, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, meaning TSMC’s quarterly revenue alone accounted for about 3.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, with the company’s
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
In an eloquently written piece published on Sunday, French-Taiwanese education and policy consultant Ninon Godefroy presents an interesting take on the Taiwanese character, as viewed from the eyes of an — at least partial — outsider. She muses that the non-assuming and quiet efficiency of a particularly Taiwanese approach to life and work is behind the global success stories of two very different Taiwanese institutions: Din Tai Fung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). Godefroy said that it is this “humble” approach that endears the nation to visitors, over and above any big ticket attractions that other countries may have
RSS