The Presidential Office yesterday complained that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had too little time to prepare for today’s debate with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Ma has been busy with state affairs, meetings and other engagements, leaving him with very little time to prepare for the debate.
Recently, Ma has been preoccupied with dealing with the physical clashes that broke out between lawmakers at the legislature, visiting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators who were injured during the incident and settling the dispute between the ruling and opposition parties over the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), Lo said.
“The president has only two hours to prepare for the debate and discuss details with his advisers,” Lo said. “Sometimes he has to do the preparation at night because he is too busy during the day. It is very hard to do it at night because he is extremely tired at the end of the day.”
To better prepare himself for today’s debate, Ma did not attend any public functions on Friday or yesterday.
Tsai, on the other hand, was in a better position than Ma, Lo said, adding that Tsai could “wait at ease for the fatigued.”
Lo said that because of Ma’s fatigue and the DPP’s expertise in packaging, many people predicted that Tsai would perform better than Ma during the debate. Lo said he believed, however, that it would be easier for Ma to win the public trust with his “unadorned sincerity.”
Lo said Ma had become very familiar with the details of the policy by consulting with experts over the past one year.
As long as Ma said what he believed and remained consistent in his argument, he would prove that Tsai was being “two faced,”acting like an academic but actually being a politician, Lo said.
The debate, which will begin at 2pm and end at 4:30pm today, will be broadcast live on Public Television System and its affiliated channels. Ma and Tsai will each make opening remarks and closing summations as well as ask and respond to five questions and issue five additional rebuttals. They will each hold a press conference right after the debate.
In his weekly video address yesterday, Ma vowed to forge ahead with the Taiwan-China trade pact, saying the administration “will definitely” sign the proposed accord because it is conducive to Taiwan and its people.
Meanwhile, at a separate setting, DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said Tsai Ing-wen was maintaining her usual daily routine yesterday, except that she would go to bed early for a well-rested sleep ahead of today’s debate. Aside from taking part in events that had been previously scheduled, Tsai Ing-wen yesterday also spent some time with aides going over the debate one last time, Tsai Chi-chang said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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