The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is rolling out two new presidential election ad campaigns focusing on economic issues this week in a bid to shift the focus back to government policy, instead of the raging “war over persimmons.”
In the ads, the party congratulated President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election, for posting new records — “record-high housing prices” and “record-low salary growth.”
The subtitles in the advertisements read: “President Ma, you’ve broken the record again!”
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The first advertisement shows that a working-class citizen would only be able to afford an apartment in Taipei if he or she does not spend money on anything else in 16.2 years, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said, adding that the same statistics in the first quarter of this year was 13 years.
“The numbers proved that the rise in housing prices has far outpaced income growth,” he said.
The second advertisement focused on the regression of Taiwan’s salary growth, telling viewers that more than 3.6 million workers — or almost half of the nation’s salaried people — were paid less than NT$30,000 (US$990) per month.
The salary was almost the same as 1999 levels and represented a 12-year slide, Lin said.
With regards to the ongoing “persimmon war,” in which the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had been engaged in a battle of rhetoric over the falling prices of persimmons, the DPP reiterated that the key issue was not prices per se, but the persistent problem of a supply-and-demand imbalance in the agricultural sector.
In a recent campaign flyer printed in the format of a calendar, the DPP listed a dozen types of locally grown fruits, among them persimmons, that have plunged in prices this year.
The persimmons shown on the flyer were non-astringent persimmons, which were being sold at least 10 times the price of astringent persimmons, the fruit the DPP wanted to highlight.
Ma and the KMT subsequently accused the DPP of misleading the public by quoting incorrect prices and hurting farmers who grow non-astringent persimmons.
It was unfortunate that the Ma administration had turned a blind eye to the rising cases of falling fruit prices and the Council of Agriculture had insisted that compensation for farm produce loss was the responsibility of local governments, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
While the KMT continued to attack the DPP over the misplaced picture and claim that the DPP’s flyer had dragged down the price of non-astringent persimmons, the DPP maintained its position as a political party which prides itself of always taking care of farmers, he said.
“To us, this is an agricultural issue that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmers and not a campaign issue,” Chen said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,