Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma can idle away next two years

Liberty Times Editorial

Tuesday was the sixth anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration. A lot of people in the nation will be well aware of the impact this president has had on Taiwan over the past six years.

His personality flaws and lack of leadership ability have seriously impeded the government’s ability to govern, to the detriment of the nation’s social progress and development.

AIT loses credibility over green card affair

James Wang 王景弘

The controversy over whether President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or “Mark Y.J. Ma” owes the US government tax, and whether he continues to have permanent US residency confirms that both the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and Ma have been reticent about the truth. The AIT tried to obfuscate the issue, upon which Ma’s stooge held up the AIT’s missive as some kind of authoritative statement.

At the government’s request, the AIT’s office in Washington produced “evidence” in the form of a vaguely worded letter. It did so to comply with the wishes of the Ma administration, but it failed to convince the public, and in so doing has damaged the institute’s good name.

Ma still confusing values and action

Taipei Times Editorial

In the six years that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been in office, the political situation has deteriorated into turmoil and instability. The economy is weak, the wealth gap has expanded, and both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and opposition legislators, as well as the public, are complaining.

Many of the reforms Ma pledged to implement during his presidential election campaigns have never been fulfilled. Here are a few examples of his broken promises: divesting the KMT of all its ill-gotten party assets, reforming the civil servant pension system, 6 percent economic growth, an all-volunteer military, a defense budget that amounts to 3 percent of GDP and streamlining the government.

Ukraine’s regrets now Taiwan’s frustration

Kengchi Goah 吳耿志

By this time, Ukraine must have many regrets. Among those, two stand out as the most regretful — the sale of the aircraft carrier Varyag to China in April 1998 and the handover of its nuclear weapons to Russia in 1996.

In retrospect, Ukraine would wish that both actions had not been taken, but the damage has been done.

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