President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) political confidence index remained below 50 for a fourth consecutive month — the first time this has happened since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned to power in May last year — a poll released yesterday by Global Views magazine showed.
Ma’s rating was lower than that of Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
The survey, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, found that on a scale of 0 to 100, the public mood index (TPMI) for this month was 43.6 points.
The TPMI consists of two indexes: the political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI). The PCI was 51.1 this month, while the ECI was 36.1. The figures represented an increase of 5.5 points and 8.8 points respectively over the previous month.
On the political front, respondents’ confidence in Ma was 47.8 points, an increase of 5.8 points over the previous month. Wu’s (吳敦義) confidence index, however, was higher than Ma’s at 49.2 points, while that of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was 46 points.
Lian Tai (戴立安), center director, said that Wu’s confidence index represented a decrease of 0.5 points when compared with that of his predecessor, Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), when Liu took office. Tai said that although Ma’s confidence index had picked up since Typhoon Morakot, it was relatively low and below 50 for the fourth consecutive month.
“It is natural to see the figure go up and down, but when it lingers below 50 for a quarter, it is a warning,” he said.
Ma’s confidence index was 42 points last month, 47.6 points in July and 49.4 points in June.
As Ma is set to double as KMT chairman next month, it remains to be seen what impact that would have on his trust index, Tai said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received 43.5 points on the confidence index, a 1.6 points decline. The party’s confidence index dropped by 4.7 points to 34.8 points.
Tai attributed the decline in Tsai’s trust index to a backlash following such incidents as Tsai staying at a five-star hotel while inspecting disaster areas following Typhoon Morakot and the fallout of the visit of the Dalai Lama.
The fall in the DPP’s trust index was mainly because of the political fallout of the Buddhist leader’s visit and former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) conviction of corruption, Tai said.
The current economic situation index was 26.5 points, an increase of 1.1 points from last month. It was the third consecutive month that the public had been “pessimistic” about the economy, he said.
The economic optimism index edged up by 10 points to 45.8 points, a high point since the center began conducting the poll in June 2006. The figure in April this year was 46.6 points and it was 46.5 points back in May.
The current economic situation index scored 20.7 points and the index for individual finances was 32.3 points.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 14 and Sept. 16 and 1,003 adults across the country were surveyed.
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