Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday accused the National Development Council of slanting a recent poll to support “predetermined results” by the government on the student-led Sunflower movement.
Kuan was referring to the poll, released on Thursday, that showed close to 50 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the student movement.
The survey was biased in its wording and riddled with leading questions, Kuan said after analyzing the questions used.
She said the questionnaire starts by asking respondents if they knew about the Legislative Yuan being occupied by students, followed by whether they condoned the action.
Of those interviewed, 46.1 percent answered “yes,” while 37.2 percent answered “no.”
Disapproval soared to 69.3 percent after the question described the March 23 attempt to occupy the Executive Yuan as “destruction of public property, theft and illegal occupation,” Kuan said.
She attributed the 62.7 percent of respondents approving police removal of the students and the 43.7 percent supporting increasing the police’s “legal enforcement” to the wording of the question.
Only 31.7 percent of interviewees felt the police’s removal was “bloody suppression.”
The questionnaire described the pact as “China offering to open 80 items for Taiwanese investment,” while Taiwan was only allowing the opening of 64 items and would ban Chinese workers from coming to Taiwan. Kuan said this contributed to a marginal lead for approving the pact at 40.9 percent, over 39.6 percent in opposition.
The questions avoided mentioning the possibility of changing the pact’s content during review, and thus, said Kuan, lowered support to 26 percent for the students demand of a bill to first monitor cross-strait negotiations before reviewing the pact.
Only 27.8 percent supported sending the pact back to the Executive Yuan for review.
The students’ request for a civic constitutional assembly was completely ignored, but Jiang’s proposal of a “economic national forum” was included, creating an overwhelming 62.5 percent in support of the concept, she added.
Of those polled, 57.6 percent said students should leave the legislative chambers before their demands were met.
Meanwhile, netizens who also received the council’s poll said the questions were “rough” and “full of traps.”
They echoed Kuan’s comments that the wording of the questions painted the student protest in a bad light, adding that the government was attempting to put a spin on events to help President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS