Many people vividly remember the “long stay program” launched while Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) campaigned for the presidential election, during which he toured the country, spent time in rural areas and worked shoulder to shoulder with fishermen and farmers.
The campaign tactic proved to be successful in that it helped Ma win the hearts of many laborers and created rapprochement between Ma and grassroots movements.
However, after being handed the key to the Presidential Office, Ma has focused virtually all his attention on the capital.
If President Ma is aware of the plight of the nation’s fishermen and farmers, whose livelihood is under threat, then he is not showing it.
Two weeks into his presidency, Ma has made scant public appearances, limiting himself to attending the exhibition of Jean Francois Millet’s The Gleaners on Friday night, taking part in a dragon boat race practice session on Saturday morning and making a speech at the WiMAX Expo on Tuesday.
While the president is all composure, half of the nation’s long-distance fishing boats are in crisis, with many saying they are readying to end operations for good.
Rising fuel prices and increasingly strict international fishing restrictions have meant that the fishing industry is facing total collapse, Long-shun Fishing Company president Wang Shun-long (王順隆) said.
Farmers are having a hard time as well.
Adding to the burden of an increase in the price of fertilizer produced by Taiwan Fertilizer Co, many crops were recently lost to torrential rains.
As of Tuesday, parts of Yunlin County, a key producer of fruits and leafy vegetables, remained under water, the Council of Agriculture said.
Ma was halfway through a speech at the Gleaners exhibition when it started to rain. “Let me make an announcement first,” he said. “Now that I am not Taipei mayor, the rain in Taipei has nothing to do with me.”
Ma may have believed his attempt at humor was harmless, but judging from his silence in the face of the various sectors of the economy that have suffered in recent weeks because of rising commodity prices, such jesting may have revealed a streak of indifference.
A great part of a president’s role is to steer his country with clarity and conviction.
To do this, a leader must empathize with the population.
If Ma is to achieve this, he will have to leave the comfort of his air-conditioned office in Taipei and again get his hands dirty to some extent with the farmers, fishermen and others who are now struggling even more to make ends meet.
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? Ko and Huang have been appealing to that