President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said there is no “lame duck” or “caretaker” government problem for him, as he would do what he needs to do as long as he is the nation’s president.
He made the remarks during an interview with a media outlet that aired on Friday night.
He also called on his party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to continue its suit against Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) over Wang’s party membership, saying it concerns “the KMT’s core values.”
Ma said he has made reforms that have developed in a positive way, despite having met some obstructions and paid some costs.
“There are some officials who have left [the Cabinet], but they still count as the minority,” he said.
When asked about his agenda, citing as an example US President Barack Obama, who has secured increasing public support during the final two years of his second term by launching more policies, Ma said that he would continue pushing free economic pilot zones and other policies “that do not require amendments to the law,” including integrating the existing housing tax and land value tax, and signing economic cooperation and free-trade agreements with trade partners.
Regarding former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) vice minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), who was accused of leaking confidential information to China by MAC Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), but was not indicted, Ma said that Wang “had done the right thing.”
“The prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence, but that does not mean that there was no evidence,” Ma said. “It is the central government’s standard operating procedure to remove any high-level official suspected of leaking information.”
Ma emphasized that he maintains “good interactions” with new KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫). However, it seems the two disagree about Wang Jin-pyng’s party membership lawsuit, as Ma was clearly not convinced by the court’s decision and Chu was hesitant about lodging an appeal.
“Dropping the lawsuit would be tantamount to accepting the High Court’s view on the issue [which ruled that the KMT’s revocation of Wang’s membership was invalid]. Does that mean we need to have the party congress vote on each membership revocation case in the future?” Ma said.
Saying that the legislative speaker’s case involves “judicial influence peddling,” which he described as a “serious crime,” Ma added that dealing with Wang Jin-pyng’s party membership would have significant impact on “the KMT’s core values.”
“[The court] said the committee is not a democratically elected body, but the judges themselves are not democratically elected. Why do they possess the power to determine who can live and who can die?” Ma said.
Chu yesterday said that society and the court had their views on and criticisms against the committee, so the party has resolved that the committee be formed — and was formed last week — via the party’s democratic process.
“We are having everything returned to the institution … so no matter how controversial a case is, [including] the party membership case that has gained a lot of attention, we will have them processed through the proper institution. It would be in line with procedural justice,” Chu said.
Commenting on Ma’s interview, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) yesterday said that Ma is living in a different world from most people, and thus besides being angered by Ma, he also sympathizes with the president.
“Based on what he said in the interview, President Ma obviously did not sense that he is the reason for all the difficulties that Taiwan is experiencing, and he is incapable of reflecting on the harm and pain that he brought to the public and to the nation,” Cheng said. “This is why Ma’s approval rating has been about 10 percent in recent years, and this is also why there have been so many protests and so much anger toward the government in recent years.”
Cheng said that while Ma repeatedly labeled “peaceful development of cross-strait relations” as the most important contribution of his government to the nation, “Ma is apparently unable to handle China’s unilateral designation of the controversial M503 air route, which is not only disrespectful to Taiwan, but also seriously threatens our national security.”
“Is this one of the ‘benefits’ from cross-strait exchanges you mentioned?” Cheng asked.
“I believe that, after watching the interview, most people would feel angry, helpless and on top of that, sympathetic toward the president,” Cheng said.
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