Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday issued an online statement urging President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to step down and take responsibility for his poor governance and autocratic actions regarding the revocation of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) membership.
She called on members of the public to show their concern about the country’s future by joining a “civic alliance to recall Ma.”
During his five years serving as head of state and commander-in-chief, Ma has not lived up to the presidential vows he recited during his inauguration, Lu said in a statement posted on her Facebook page yesterday.
He has fallen far short of the public’s expectations, which is why he should be subjected to severe punishment, Lu said.
“Ma’s failure to live up to his presidential vows is the cause of his plummeting approval rating. The latest poll [conducted by TVBS] shows that his approval rating has dropped to only 11 percent, compared to a disapproval rating of 68 percent. Another survey [by the Taiwan Indicators Survey Research] also shows that as much as 70 percent of Taiwanese have no faith in the president’s future performance,” Lu said.
An incompetent leader like Ma, whose poor governance, China-leaning stance and damage to the nation’s constitutional mechanism have driven the people to despair, should voluntarily step down, Lu said.
Lu also urged lawmakers across party lines to immediately launch a recall motion against Ma to alleviate the public’s concerns, safeguard Taiwan’s constitutional system and protect the country’s sovereignty and security.
Lu said the president’s perceived manipulation of the Special Investigation Division (SID) and the KMT’s Central Evaluation and Discipline Committee to take down Wang underlined Ma’s autocratic governing style and constituted a severe violation of the doctrine of the separation of powers.
Since Ma took office in 2008, his dereliction of duty had undermined the nation’s sovereignty, damaged its dignity, brought about economic recession and pushed the country to the verge of bankruptcy, Lu said.
“Instead of safeguarding national security as the nation’s commander-in-chief is supposed to, Ma has sat idly by while the military is plagued by irregularities and has promoted an all-volunteer military system that could cripple our national defense,” Lu said.
“More alarmingly, as a result of Ma’s pandering to China, our soldiers have no idea who they are fighting for, causing unease in the nation,” Lu said.
Lu’s statement came on the heels of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) announcement of its plan to initiate an impeachment of Ma in the legislature, a move aimed at holding the president accountable for what the party described as jeopardizing the nation’s constitutional order and political stability by carrying out political persecution against Wang.
Wang, a long-time KMT member, saw his membership revoked by the party’s discipline committee last week, after the SID used information obtained during an alleged illegal wiretap operation to back its accusations that Wang had illegally lobbied for a lawsuit involving DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
The scandal has ignited a public outcry aimed at Ma, whom many believe was the mastermind behind what appeared to be a carefully orchestrated political vendetta against Wang.
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
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
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
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