A little more than 52 percent of the public is unhappy with the Executive Yuan’s efforts to boost employment, while 52.9 percent are dissatisfied with its efforts to boost economic development, a survey by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) shows.
The survey, conducted on March 26 and March 27, interviewed 1,241 people above the age of 20 through random selection of residential telephones. In all, 1,073 agreed to answer the survey, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
The survey showed that 43.8 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the amount of increase in social welfare provision and 48.4 were unhappy with the education system.
Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei Times
While 48 percent professed confidence in the government’s policy implementation for the next year, 40 percent said they were not confident.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said that while President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had won re-election on an economic platform, post-election surveys by the government showed that more than 50 percent of the public were dissatisfied with the government’s performance on economic development.
There were also higher figures of discontent with regard to other policies, which shows that Taiwanese are very unhappy with the government, Tsai said, adding that the public had lost all trust in the Ma administration.
Ma should reform his Cabinet, halt policies such as electricity and gas price increases, and apologize to the nation, Tsai said.
Tsai also claimed that the commission survey had tried to avoid the issue of public trust in the Cabinet by changing the title of its survey.
Past surveys by the commission had been titled “The People’s Satisfaction with Governmental Policy Implementation” and included questions on satisfaction with the Cabinet’s performance and administrative efficiency, Tsai said.
The change in title to “Satisfaction of the Executive Yuan’s Policy Implementation” stems from the government’s anticipation of negative feedback and represents an attempt to avoid the issue of the Cabinet’s approval rate and presidential performance by omitting those questions, Tsai said.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) also alleged that questions on satisfaction with government performance on cross-strait relations, performance on cross-strait diplomacy and performance on taxation reform were purposefully left out.
“Why are there no questions concerning cross-strait diplomacy, when in past policy implementation surveys there were?” Chen asked.
The Ma administration must have known that the controversial “One country, two areas (一國兩區)” rhetoric voiced late last month would not be accepted by the majority of the public, Chen said, adding that the Ma administration did not include questions concerning cross-strait issues, because of fears that such questions would lower the government’s overall score on policy implementation.
Commission spokesperson Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) said the survey focused on the implementation of Cabinet policy, which was why issues of diplomacy and cross-strait matters, which pertain to presidential powers, were not included.
On the issue of tax reform, Sung said the lack of questions on the subject reflected the Ministry of Finance’s uncertainty over its capital-gains tax policy at the time the survey was conducted.
As for the lack of questions on satisfaction with the Cabinet and the president, Sung said the commission felt responses to the questions pertaining to presidential satisfaction were easily swayed by the fame of a person or the respondents’ personal feelings.
“We concentrated on questions that would be of genuine help to government policy implementation and left out those that touched on satisfaction with specific individuals,” Sung said.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence The US House of Representatives on Friday approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 that includes US$500 million in military aid for Taiwan. The legislation, which authorizes funding for the US Department of State, US foreign operations and related programs for next year, passed 212-200 in the Republican-led House. The bill stipulates that the US would provide no less than US$500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait, and offer Taipei up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees for the same purpose. The funding would be made available under the US’ Foreign Military