Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to resign, calling him incapable, disconnected with the public and too conservative.
“Ma is incapable and shameless. He should step down as president,” Lee told reporters while attending the Presbyterian Church’s celebration of its 150th anniversary in Taiwan.
“During his six years in office, government policies have become disconnected with the people. He only thinks of himself, while the public suffers so many troubles and problems. He has been unable to take care of any of the members of the public,” he said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Ma might just as well step down voluntarily, Lee said, adding that if Ma remains, he would force him to resign.
“I asked him to step down because that way he can save face rather than being forced to resign,” Lee said.
The results of last month’s nine-in-one elections were the biggest failure for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which has existed for more than a century, “but Ma never thinks about reform,” Lee said.
“There was a Cabinet reshuffle, the premier stepped down, but the same people remain in the Cabinet; the only change is the vice premier taking over as premier,” Lee said.
When he pushed for reforms, Ma has always sided with conservative views, Lee said. For example when there was a movement for direct suffrage for the presidency, Ma supported electing the president via the national assembly.
While campaigning for Ma during his first run at the Taipei mayoral position in 1998, Lee said they discussed their political ideologies.
At the time, Ma said that he would follow Lee’s path to reform, the former president said.
“However, the truth is that he did not do so,” Lee said. “He has been completely opposed to reforms within the KMT.”
Lee said that some people believe the KMT lost so badly in the election because it did not nominate good candidates, but he thinks the KMT’s failure to show good leadership over the six years since Ma took office in 2008 was a more important factor.
“Ma does not care about the suffering of citizens — so many young people are unemployed, salaries are so low, houses are so expensive, they are afraid of getting married and having children — he only cares about developing ties with China,” Lee said.
On Dec. 1, two days after the nine-in-one elections, Lee, during an interview with SET-TV (三立電視), urged Ma to resign both as chairman of the KMT — which he did last week — and as president.
Lee repeated on Facebook on Tuesday night that Ma should resign as president immediately.
Yesterday marked at least the third time the former president has made the appeal.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS