President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has failed to deliver almost all of his Hakka-related campaign pledges over his three-and-a-half years in office, representatives from various Hakka groups told a press conference yesterday.
Ma, who is seeking re-election in January, has said at his presidential campaign stops that he has carried out all of the pledges he made to Hakka people in his 2008 presidential campaign.
The representatives said otherwise, with Taiwan Hakka Society chairman Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森) saying Ma has not delivered any of his nine pledges and has cheated the Hakka community, making him unqualified for a second term.
According to Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) legislative candidate in Miaoli County, Ma has not done anything to deliver on his campaign promises: He has not established a national Hakka-language radio station or Hakka culture development areas; he has not recognized the Hakka language as a public language; he has not promoted Taiwan as a global leader of Hakka culture; and he has not enacted laws required for such policies.
“His integrity as a national leader is therefore questionable. He should apologize to the Hakka people,” Yiong said.
Ma also failed to double the budget for Hakka affairs in four years — as he had promised to do, former Hsinchu County commissioner Lin Kwang-hua (林光華), a Hakka, said, adding that this year’s budget was listed at NT$3.2 billion (US$10.5 million) — a 33 percent increase from the 2008 budget of NT$2.4 billion allocated under the previous DPP administration.
The Ma administration spent most of its Hakka budget on media promotion, festivals and activities that were “basically ineffective in promoting Hakka culture,” Taipei Hakka Association of Public Affairs chairman Chen Shih-shan (陳石山) said.
Wen Ming-chung (溫明忠), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University, said the Executive Yuan had scrapped Article 13 of the Hakka Basic Act (客家基本法), which stipulated the establishment of the developmental fund for sectors with Hakka characteristics.
In other words, Wen said, the Ma administration eliminated a regulation that would have helped fulfill Ma’s campaign promise.
The press conference was the second time this month the Hakka community slammed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for what it called failed Hakka policies.
On Nov. 16, leaders from local Hakka groups slammed former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) for calling DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) a “pseudo-Hakka” for her lack of Hakka language proficiency and demanded that the KMT apologize for what they said was its past policy of “linguistic genocide.”
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS