Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the nation faced a difficult situation and that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration was incapable of leading it through.
“Taiwan needs a leader with a cool head to lead us through the difficult situation we face right now. However, the government sets new fires every day and then has to spend time dealing with the political crises it creates itself,” Tsai said in a speech delivered to members of the Ketagalan Academy Alumni Association.
The Ketagalan Academy, established in 2003, is the brainchild of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and aims to nurture officials for roles in a future DPP administration.
Tsai said that as a result of the European debt crisis and other situations, the global economy was deeply unstable and people were increasingly concerned about such issues as economic recession, unemployment and the growing wealth gap.
Taiwan faces a similar crisis she said, adding “We need to ask the government how it plans to counter these problems and where is it leading the nation?”
Taiwan has become less competitive since Ma took office in 2008, Tsai said
The problem lies in the government’s lack of efficiency, she said, adding the way the government is organized was inherited from the authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, which has no mechanism to facilitate coordination between ministries so as to respond to and seek to resolve problems as quickly as possible.
“Currently we see the president directing ministries and ministers. The Cabinet and ministries do not appear to have their own voice,” Tsai said.
In the face of such government inefficiency, members of the public should work to form a stronger civil society and speak out on public affairs, thereby helping the public communicate with the government on policy-related issues.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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