The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) released a report examining complaints from the public and named the seven-in-one elections as its priority for next year.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said his party’s No. 1 goal next year is to win the seven-in-one local elections and said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has no one to blame but itself for the public discontent that has almost reached a boiling point.
“We have not seen the government make any effort to improve people’s livelihood. Instead, the Ma administration had spent much of its energy on political power struggles,” Su said after the DPP’s Policy Research Committee released its report on the list of people’s top-10 complaints this year.
The list, which was unveiled by committee executive-director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) in the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting, said the stagnant macroeconomy that saw a poor GDP growth rate of 1.74 percent, an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent and an average wage that slid back to the level it was 15 years ago were the three most common complaints.
Also on the list were a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) policies that it said had contributed to the poor economy.
The Ma administration’s mishandling has led to issues including increased fuel, electricity and natural gas prices, inaction on rising house prices and the implementation of capital gains tax on securities transactions, Wu said.
People voiced strong discontent about the supplementary premium they have to pay in accordance with the reformed National Health Insurance program and were confused about the 12-year national education system, Wu said, adding that both reform plans were considered failures.
Taiwanese appear to have found the Ma administration’s inaction on cases related to food safety, environmental pollution and illegal property development unbearable, the report said.
The list said the bottom two complaints were Ma’s launch of a purging of his political rivals, known as the “September strife,” and his insistence to resume construction at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
The DPP hopes to make great strides next year, Su wrote in an open letter to DPP members, in which he reviewed the party’s achievements this year and what it hoped to achieve in the future.
Su said that the DPP’s main goal would be to win at least half of the 22 administrative zones in the mayoral and commissioner elections, including three of the six special municipalities and eight of the 16 cities and counties.
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
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
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
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS