A majority of respondents in a public opinion poll released yesterday said the potential collapse of government pension funds is a “major national crisis” and that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should collaborate with the opposition to find a solution.
With several pension programs facing bankruptcy in the next decade, 74.2 percent of respondents in a Taiwan Indicator Survey Research (TISR) poll said it was a major national crisis, while only 15.2 percent disagreed.
Ma would be seen as a responsible president only if he collaborated with the opposition to resolve the crisis, 68.1 percent of the respondents said.
Among respondents who said they were Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters, 64.2 percent agreed that Ma should cooperate with the opposition on the matter.
However, 19.3 percent of respondents said Ma, as a responsible national leader, should resolve the issue on his own.
If Ma did cooperate with the opposition on the pension crisis, 38.6 percent of respondents said it would boost their confidence in his ability to govern the country, while 42.1 percent said it would not change their perception and 4.4 percent said that would reduce their confidence levels in him.
Ma’s approval rating was 16.7 percent, down 0.5 percent from the TISR’s previous poll earlier this month, with 72.6 percent of respondents saying they were not satisfied with Ma’s performance. Premier Sean Chen's (陳冲) approval rate was 16.2 percent.
Ma’s credibility rating was 25 percent, down 0.4 percent from the previous poll.
The poll, which was conducted between Friday and Sunday, collected 1,006 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
RSS