The arrogance of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has shattered public confidence in the government, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, citing a recent poll indicating that US President Barack Obama is more popular in Taiwan than Ma is.
A recent survey by the Chinese-language Commonwealth Magazine found that public confidence in Ma had dropped 3.2 percentage points to 38.6 percent, trailing behind Obama at 46.1 percent.
With Ma’s approval rating below 40 percent and many Taiwanese feeling the impact of the global economic slump that has pushed unemployment to more than 6 percent, the DPP is hoping next month’s regional elections will be a symbolic vote of no confidence in the Ma administration.
PHOTO: CNA
The DPP controls only three of the 17 counties and cities up for grabs in next month’s polls and hopes to capitalize on the public’s grievances to add to its total.
“The public’s strong distrust in the government is a disaster,” DPP Spokeswoman Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said.
Hsiao criticized the government for disregarding the legislature when carrying out its policies.
PHOTO: FU CHAO-PIAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsiao said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had consistently ignored the advice and suggestions of the DPP, and urged the government to start heeding the opinions of others before public confidence in the administration erodes even further.
Meanwhile, Hsiao accused the KMT of using “dirty tricks” to sabotage the DPP candidate for Chiayi County commissioner, Chang Hua-kuan (張花冠), by nudging prosecutors to launch a probe into Chang’s campaign headquarters.
At a fundraising concert on Friday night, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the party had information indicating that prosecutors were planning a large-scale investigation into Chang’s office.
Tsai called on the KMT to refrain from such tactics in order to prevent conflict.
“This is absolutely unfair to the DPP candidates. In the last few years, in every major election, the DPP candidates have been investigated by the judiciary. But the fact is, the recent string of lawmakers that have fallen from grace for vote-buying have all belonged to the pan-blue camp,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao insinuated that the KMT was trying to direct the attention of prosecutors to the DPP alone so that pan-blue candidates would be able to buy votes unhampered.
Hsiao urged the public to help end vote-buying by immediately reporting anyone purchasing or attempting to purchase votes.
At a separate setting yesterday, KMT Spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) dismissed the DPP’s accusations and urged Tsai not to shift the focus off prosecutors’ investigations into election bribery.
“The DPP is like a thief who is afraid of being caught and is trying to shift the focus by smearing the KMT,” Lee said.
Lee said the KMT would call for unity within the party and take precautions against potential election tricks by the DPP.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH AND CNA
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS