Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to have a “gentleman’s game” on the Internet rather than rush to criticize President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) newly launched Facebook page.
Ma, who launched his Facebook page on Friday, had attracted 300,340 people to click on the page’s “like” button as of press time.
Lo said they realized these people do not necessarily support Ma, because some of them expressed their hope to see the president make more effort and do a better job.
“Nevertheless, President Ma sees the praise and criticism as motivation to commit himself to reform and a better Taiwan,” Lo said.
While Ma just launched his Facebook page on Friday, the DPP wasted no time berating it, Lo said.
“Instead of rushing to disapproval, why don’t we exchange our ideas and interact on this platform so we will have a gentleman’s game?” Lo asked.
The DPP on Friday made three suggestions to Ma regarding his Facebook page, advising Ma not to use the page as a propaganda tool, not to follow in the footsteps of Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who the party said blocked those expressing different opinions, and not to behave like Lo, who they said treated some frank suggestions as malevolent attacks.
Saying it is necessary for Ma to have one more communication channel, Lo said there were three reasons for Ma having a Facebook page — to convey his concepts on governing and government policies, to collect public opinion and to exchange ideas.
Acknowledging that the page might be bombarded with redundant and meaningless messages sent within a short period of time, Lo said they would be tolerant of such behavior or of personal attacks.
However, if the personal attacks were malicious and serious, the President Office was likely to delete those messages or report them to the police when necessary, Lo added.
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