J. on Joe
Dear Johnny,
Normally I quite enjoy reading your column, since you try to be more or less neutral and are not afraid to attack stupidity in both camps (green and blue). So I was slightly disappointed to read your column about the appointment of Joe Hung (洪健昭) as chief of the Central News Agency (“Cuff him, Danno ... oh ... use mine,” Dec. 12, page 8).
I do not like the deep blue thinking in some of Mr Hung’s articles, but your criticism of the political dimension of this appointment amounts to a double standard. Mr Hung’s predecessor was Mr Su Tseng-ping (蘇正平), well known for his affilation to the green camp and even Government Information Office chief under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) before that.
I don’t remember you criticizing Su’s appointment. So come on, Johnny — you can do better and your readers are not that stupid.
J. Mueller
Taipei
Johnny replies: Thanks for writing, J. My concern with Hung is his personal reactionary politics, not the reactionary politics that got him the job. Political appointments are par for the course, but despite this, media standards and freedoms should be defended. I fear CNA will regress even further.
A Nobel sense of humor
Dear Johnny,
I was reading an Oct. 12 article called “Nobel: Ma Overlooked” by Raoul Heinrichs in The Interpreter, the blog for the Lowy Institute for International Policy.
It says: “Like many people, I tend to think that the decision to pre-emptively award [US] President [Barack] Obama the Nobel Peace prize was a very poor one. ...
“But if not Obama, then whom? To my mind, perhaps the most worthy candidate would have been Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九], president of Taiwan. Since his election in March 2008, Ma has provided the impetus for the most rapid and wide-ranging rapprochement in cross-Strait relations in sixty years.
“Even as Taiwan’s economic growth came to a grinding halt — it grew at 0.1% for most of 2008 — Ma has sustained broad public support for his approach to relations with the mainland, securing Beijing’s tentative cooperation by deferring questions of independence and reunification, and facilitating agreements on, among other things, the establishment of direct charter flights, a diplomatic truce, and new bilateral investment guidelines — all the while conducting his diplomacy in a manner generally conducive to further improvement in relations.”
The bit that I find a bit dodgy is when the article states “Ma has sustained broad public support for his relations with the mainland.” Uggh ... excuse me ... “broad public support”?
So, Johnny, what are your impressions?
Michael Scanlon
East Hartford, Connecticut
Johnny replies: The opinion that Ma deserves a Nobel is not new, but this is the first time I’ve seen it come from a reputable think tank. My humble advice to Mr Heinrichs:
1. Come to Taiwan.
2. Count how many Taiwanese hear this suggestion before someone laughs in your face.
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