President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised yesterday that his administration would reflect on its performance and make an effort to narrow the gap between its policies and public expectations.
Ma made the remarks at a luncheon with Examination Yuan members at the Taipei Guest House, his first public response to the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets on Saturday to demand the government protect national sovereignty, improve the economy and pass “sunshine laws.”
Ma said the public has great expectations for his administration, but soaring prices for oil and imported goods have challenged his campaign promise to improve the economy.
Although his campaign pledges were long-range, Ma said his administration would listen to the people and make an effort to improve the situation.
Although organizers said more than 300,000 people turned up at the rally, Ma said the event attracted only 50,000 people.
Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said later that Ma had simply “cited the number given by the Taipei City police.”
Ma said he agreed with the demands of protesters, because his administration also wanted to protect the nation’s sovereignty, revive the economy and promote transparent politics.
Wang said the government has made efforts to ensure safety and integrity since taking office and that they would mark “sunshine laws” as priority bills during the next legislative session.
“Except for ideology, the president supports the protesters’ demands,” Wang said.
Ma also vowed to push government reform to upgrade government competitiveness. To strengthen the training of civil servants, he floated the idea of testing applicants’ English in national examinations.
Later yesterday, the Taiwan Society, which organized the rally, issued a list of demands. It asked Ma to apologize for failing to fulfill his “6-3-3” economic goals, give up his salary for not realizing his election promises, pass “sunshine laws” within six months, issue taxpayers a rebate and let Taiwanese decide the future of cross-strait relations.
In his “633” economic goals, Ma proposed to drive up the annual economic growth rate to 6 percent,annual per capita income of US$30,000 by 2016 and keep the unemployment rate at less than 3 percent.
Wang did not give direct answers to the first two demands, saying only that the administration would make efforts to put them into practice.
Regarding the “sunshine laws,” Wang said the administration would make efforts to pass the bills but stopped short of promising to doing so in the period requested.
On the issuing of a tax rebate, Wang said it was a public issue and deserved more debate. As for the last demand concerning cross-strait relations, Wang said that as the country has transformed itself into a democracy, the people of Taiwan have always had a say in the democratic institution.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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