Saturday’s by-elections in Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung saw the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) win in both special municipalities. Opinions on the results vary, but they can be summarized by saying that the governing party has too high an opinion of itself and its policies are out of touch with public opinion.
Ever since the Lunar New Year, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), government departments and media outlets with close links to the party have raved on about a “perceptible” economic recovery as opposed to a “jobless” recovery.
Certain media outlets have been playing up news about how much money Chinese tourists are spending in Taiwan and how much money Taiwanese businesses are spending on their annual banquets to paint a pretty picture of the economic situation.
However, most people’s salaries have been stagnant for years, while commodity prices have continued to rise. As a result people have less money to spend and they are dissatisfied.
If you ask your friends and relatives about this, most of them will probably tell you they are dissatisfied with what’s going on. The Ministry of the Interior recently announced that while Taiwan’s economic growth exceeded 10 percent last year, for the first time, more than 110,000 households — 273,000 people — are living below the poverty line. This clearly shows how the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing.
Now, let’s look at the recent hike in commodity prices. While this was mostly caused by an international imbalance in the supply and demand for raw materials, it was also aggravated by individuals.
While the government has declared that it would come down hard and heavily punish anyone involved in hoarding, and based on past experience the government was all hot air when it came to dealing with middlemen making exorbitant profits from selling agricultural products.
The price of fertilizer has also increased, adding to the burden of farmers and causing some to wonder whether certain businesses are involved in hoarding.
The government vowed to closely investigate the matter and hand out strict punishment, but all it did in the end was arrest a few minor players so it could say it had fulfilled its duties. These past incidents have caused the public to doubt the government’s ability and accountability.
In fact, the economic and trade achievements that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration are so proud of are a direct result of China’s attempts to pander to Taiwan. What’s more, the majority of those who have benefited are large corporations and businesses.
This has had the effect of increasing the relative deprivation that people feel and this is certain to cost the current administration in future.
The good thing about democracies is that people can change their political leaders without having to resort to violence. The results of the latest by-elections are definitely a warning for the KMT and we will have to see what reforms and actions it adopts from here on to see if it has a chance to hang on to power.
As for the DPP, the results were definitely a form of encouragement, but if the party gets caught up in a power struggle and infighting, things will not be good for it either, as we have seen in the past. It will indeed be interesting to see the result of the battle between the two sides.
Lee Wu-chung is a professor of agricultural economics at National Taiwan University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
The arrest in France of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has brought into sharp focus one of the major conflicts of our age. On one hand, we want privacy in our digital lives, which is why we like the kind of end-to-end encryption Telegram promises. On the other, we want the government to be able to stamp out repugnant online activities — such as child pornography or terrorist plotting. The reality is that we cannot have our cake and eat it, too. Durov last month was charged with complicity in crimes taking place on the app, including distributing child pornography,
RSS