The government’s delayed reaction in launching disaster relief operations after Typhoon Morakot devastated southern Taiwan has caused widespread public rage and dissatisfaction, both in Taiwan and abroad.
By yesterday at noon, about 80 percent of Web users had voted “yes” to a CNN Internationlal online public poll question: “Should Taiwan’s leader stand down over delays in aiding typhoon victims?”
Meanwhile, a Web petition to initiate a “Let’s set a date at 919 [Sept. 19] to depose Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).”
The last character in the president’s name means nine in Chinese.
A Plurker nicknamed Xdite also called on fellow users of the Internet social platform to attend the upcoming National Youth Policy Forum, which is scheduled for Aug. 30.
Ma, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) as well as other Cabinet ministers are expected to make appearances.
Xdite called on other Plurkers to attend the forum, which will be open to 300 people aged 18 to 35, so that they can demand that Ma step down for mishandling the typhoon disaster relief operations.
Soon after Xdite had posted the message on his board, another Plurker replied: “I am worried that if I were to attend, I would be too inclined to throw a shoe at Ma at the event.”
On another online message board, a Web user posted a satire titled “Documentation on Emperor Ma, Chapter One.”
One passage of the fictious story reads: “Though many countries wished to come to his aid, Emperor Ma refused, saying, ‘though our country is poor, it can protect itself.’”
“The people were enraged, and pleaded for foreign aid in tears. After two days, the Emperor changed his words and said: ‘Where did the rumor come from? I never refused any aid,’” it read.
Addressing the Web protests, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said that Ma should have stepped down long ago.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said that although she had reservations about the accuracy of the poll held by CNN yesterday, its result nevertheless served as a warning sign.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
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