Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of incompetency, lashing out at his administration for failing to offer concrete measures to curb public apprehension over events such as the recent melamine contamination and the poor performance of the TAIEX.
Lee said that when the Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2000 it didn’t know how to govern Taiwan and the people had suffered as a consequence.
He then said that since Ma took office he had proved incompetent in everything he has done and again the people were suffering.
Lee made the remarks in a speech delivered at a world congress of The Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association Formosa held in Taipei yesterday.
Saying that the government should understand people’s safety is more important than anything, Lee said the government should condemn China and demand an apology since raw materials and products imported from China were found to have contained harmful levels of melamine.
Lee said Ma had not dared to condemn China and his silence had led to Taiwan being perceived in a negative light.
POOR PERFORMANCE
Noting the poor recent performance of the TAIEX, Lee went on to criticize Ma for neglecting the suffering of the public, saying the government appears at lost in dealing with the stock market slump.
“Taiwan is now faced with internal and external crises,” he said. “Under the leadership of the current government, Taiwan appears lost, like it is walking in fog and doesn’t know which way to go.”
Alluding to Ma’s definition of cross-strait relations made in an interview with the Mexican newspaper Sol de Mexico in August when he said that they were not between two countries, but a type of special relationship across the Taiwan Strait,” Lee accused the government of trying to do away with Taiwan’s sovereignty.
INTERNATIONAL ISSUE
Saying that the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty was an international one, Lee said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Community Party must not be allowed to decide among themselves on how Taiwan’s status should be changed in talks behind closed doors.
Lee also slammed former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
“Not long ago there came the news that a politician had wired money overseas,” Lee said, in an obvious reference to Chen’s money-laundering case.
“While it remains to be seen following the judicial investigation whether any irregularities have occurred, [the allegation] exposes how people can be corrupted in the middle of taking part in democratization and how some supporters can’t tell right from wrong but keep covering up [for politicians],” Lee said.
It is frightening when democratizers become corrupted and “love Taiwan” becomes a mere slogan, he said.
Also See: ‘Happy Mobs’ seek safety in numbers
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary