A majority of people believe that legislators, regardless of their party affiliation, place their parties, families, factions or specific interest groups far above the needs of the public, a public opinion poll showed yesterday.
The survey, conducted by Taiwan Indicator Survey Research (TISR), found that only 16.7 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the performance of lawmakers, while 61.5 percent said they were unsatisfied and 33.3 percent did not answer.
More than half, or 57.2 percent, of those polled said the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislative majority was not helpful to effective governance by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, a TISR press release said.
Asked for whose benefit KMT lawmakers worked, 26.4 percent of respondents said they worked primarily for their party, followed by 19.7 percent who cited businesses and specific groups, while families and factions was chosen by 18.7 percent.
Only 7.5 percent of respondents said that KMT lawmakers strived for the benefit of the public, slightly above the 7.1 percent who said lawmakers work for voters in their constituencies.
Respondents’ impressions of the Democratic Progresive Party (DPP) were similar, with 26.3 percent saying that the party mattered most to DPP lawmakers, while 17.3 percent said DPP lawmakers sought advantages for their families and factions.
However, in contrast with the KMT, 16 percent of respondents said that DPP legislators cared most about the welfare of the public, while 8 percent of those polled said DPP lawmakers sought benefits for businesses and specific interests groups.
According to the poll, 55.6 percent of respondents have forgotten who they voted for in the legislative elections in January last year, with only 23.6 percent remembering who they voted for.
The survey also showed that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) credibility rating of 21.4 percent was the lowest since he was first inaugurated in May 2008, while his approval rating stood at a low 17.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the disapproval rating for Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), at 47.3 percent, was the highest since he took the post in February, the poll found.
The survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, collected 1,005 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to