A new opinion poll by the Taiwan Thinktank shows that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) approval rating has hit a new low amid widespread opposition to his plan to revise the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) charter so that a sitting president from the party automatically becomes the party chairman.
The think tank said yesterday that almost two in three respondents, or 65.7 percent, said they disagreed with the planned revision of the KMT charter, which is to be voted on tomorrow, and 65.1 percent said Ma, who is the current KMT chairman, should be held accountable if the party loses next year’s seven-in-one municipal elections.
While Ma has called the charter revision a “sacrifice” because it means his current four-year term as chairman could be cut short, “it is, in fact, Ma’s attempt to shun his responsibility for a potential loss in the elections,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) told a press conference organized by the think tank.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The poll, conducted from Tuesday to Thursday, found that just 15.5 percent of respondents approved of Ma’s performance, the lowest since the think tank began conducting a bi-monthly poll in March last year. His disapproval rating also hit a record high of 75.9 percent.
Ma’s unpopular policies and poor credibility were obvious the respondents, with 70.5 percent disagreeing with his description of the cross-strait relations as“not international relations,” 80.2 percent saying he does not have the ability to keep Taiwan’s GDP above 2 percent and 90.3 percent saying they have no confidence in the government’s capability to improve food safety.
Meanwhile, Premier Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) honeymoon period also seems to be over, as both his approval rating, 19.5 percent, and disapproval rating, 62.3 percent, were the worst since his inauguration in February.
“It seems to me that people have come to realize what kind of politician Jiang, a former academic of high acclaim, is,” Soochow University professor Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
Opinions on cross-strait policies and developments were more divided.
Asked if they were worried about Taiwan being unified with China, 50.8 percent said yes, while 45.3 percent said no, with 3.9 percent declining to give an answer.
Asked if they support Ma conducting political negotiations with Beijing before his current term ends, 41.8 percent were supportive of the idea, while 45.1 percent disagreed. However, 67.9 percent of those polled said a national referendum must be held before such negotiations take place, with only 22.9 percent saying a referendum was not necessary.
Most respondents said officials involved in recent controversies should step down, with 67.6 percent calling for Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) to resign over his role in the wiretapping of the legislature and 70.9 percent urging Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) to resign for his inability to manage the food safety crisis.
The survey collected 1,074 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.