Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

No response to Ma’s unmet promises

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is doing it again: After his failure to deliver on his “6-3-3” campaign pledge — 6 percent annual GDP growth, an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent and US$30,000 annual per capita income — his failure to donate half of his salary as he had said he would if he fell short of the “6-3-3” targets, his failure to seek compensation from Beijing for the damage caused to Taiwanese firms in 2008 over the imports of melamine-tainted milk products, and his broken promise of not doubling as president and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, Ma is adding another item to his list of broken campaign pledges.

Richard Bush warns on PRC coercion

Taipei Times

The greatest danger facing Taiwan is intimidation from China, former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush said in Washington on Tuesday.

The greatest danger was not military attack — “a bolt from the red” — but rather that Beijing might exploit its growing power to “intimidate Taiwan into submission” on China’s terms, he said.

Allow youth freedom of expression

Taipei Times Editorial

Taiwan has come a long way since the Martial Law era. The public would not enjoy the freedom of speech and democracy it does today without the sacrifices made by democracy pioneers such as Freedom Era Weekly editor-in-chief Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who set himself ablaze on April 7, 1988, in defense of freedom of expression.

It is therefore both comforting and encouraging to see young people take a stand, as National Cheng Kung University’s student body did last month when it voted to name an area on campus “Nan-jung Square” (South Banyan Square, 南榕廣場) in honor of Deng, an alumnus of the school, as well as the school’s symbol of a banyan tree.

Ex-minister Kuo vows to clear name

Taipei Times

Former minister of transportation and communications Kuo Yao-chi waves to her supporters outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday as she leaves for the Taoyuan Women’s Prison to begin an eight-year sentence for corruption.
Photo: Lin Chun-hung, Taipei Times

Insisting that she was unjustly declared guilty of corruption and vowing to fight to clear her name, former minister of transportation and communications Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪) bade a tearful farewell to her supporters yesterday morning as she headed off to Taoyuan Women’s Prison.

Chanting “Stop the political persecution” and “The minister is innocent,” a crowd of former colleagues and supporters greeted Kuo as she stepped out of her car to report to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office before being sent to prison.

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