Despite the celebratory ambiance the government tried to project yesterday with a dazzling array of Double Ten National Day parades, a spectacular firework display and a speech by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) trumpeting his goals of building Taiwan with “high highs” — a free economy with high productivity, high value-added products and high incomes with generous welfare — many remain skeptical about the competence of the Ma government and find it hard to view the nation’s future optimistically.
The public has good reasons not to be thrilled with the government.
Besides holding a poor track record of translating pledges into concrete efforts to improve the public’s standard of living, the Ma administration has also managed to depress the nation every day by delivering ideas and catchphrases, while failing to introduce any actual policies that might improve lives or promote national development.
What the public witnesses are disturbing incidents such as the political vendetta waged by Ma against Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) through allegedly unconstitutional means and the Special Investigation Division’s seeming presumption to wiretap the Legislative Yuan’s switchboard. All of this is causing more of the public to be swamped by that sinking feeling that the president and his Cabinet do not share the nation’s priorities.
“We must decide our own future. We should ask ourselves: Do we want a civil society governed with reason and tolerance? Or do we choose political infighting stemming from suspicion and confrontation?” said Ma in his speech yesterday as he pledged to strengthen dialogue between the government and society to “promote social progress and realize social reform.”
While Ma may be of the opinion that his words alone are sincere enough to put the public at ease, he may not be aware that every word he speaks exists in sharp contrast to what is actually happening. The public is rapidly losing heart and losing faith in the nation’s direction.
Fortunately, there is a hope yet.
The hope lies not in the flowery and empty words delivered by the president, but in the growing awakening of civic consciousness, which the world witnessed in the streets of Taiwan yesterday, where ten of thousands of people called for reforms and exercised their civic rights and responsibilities. It is here we can see the future of the nation.
The hope for Taiwan also lies in people like the “Ms Lin from Taipei,” a housewife who shot to fame recently for her outspokenness and poignant insights criticizing the government and politicians in political call-in shows, debunking the perception that the majority of Taiwanese are apathetic toward politics.
Granted, the nation will not suddenly change for better just because one member of the public dared to explicitly express her anger with the government. However, one more voice heard means one more step toward the realization that the “people are the masters of the country.”
When citizens feel the most demoralized and hopeless about the course the nation is taking, they will stand up firm and make their voices heard.
US President Donald Trump has gotten off to a head-spinning start in his foreign policy. He has pressured Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States, threatened to take over the Panama Canal, urged Canada to become the 51st US state, unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” and announced plans for the United States to annex and administer Gaza. He has imposed and then suspended 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for their roles in the flow of fentanyl into the United States, while at the same time increasing tariffs on China by 10
As an American living in Taiwan, I have to confess how impressed I have been over the years by the Chinese Communist Party’s wholehearted embrace of high-speed rail and electric vehicles, and this at a time when my own democratic country has chosen a leader openly committed to doing everything in his power to put obstacles in the way of sustainable energy across the board — and democracy to boot. It really does make me wonder: “Are those of us right who hold that democracy is the right way to go?” Has Taiwan made the wrong choice? Many in China obviously
US President Donald Trump last week announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on eight countries. As Taiwan, a key hub for semiconductor manufacturing, is among them, the policy would significantly affect the country. In response, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) dispatched two officials to the US for negotiations, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) board of directors convened its first-ever meeting in the US. Those developments highlight how the US’ unstable trade policies are posing a growing threat to Taiwan. Can the US truly gain an advantage in chip manufacturing by reversing trade liberalization? Is it realistic to
About 6.1 million couples tied the knot last year, down from 7.28 million in 2023 — a drop of more than 20 percent, data from the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs showed. That is more serious than the precipitous drop of 12.2 percent in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the saying goes, a single leaf reveals an entire autumn. The decline in marriages reveals problems in China’s economic development, painting a dismal picture of the nation’s future. A giant question mark hangs over economic data that Beijing releases due to a lack of clarity, freedom of the press
RSS