Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The 'one-term' specter over Ma and Obama

Taiwan News Editorial

In the wake of electoral setbacks suffered by United States President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, the Taiwan news media could not refrain from comparing the situation of the U.S. president with his counterpart, President Ma Ying-jeou of the rightist Chinese National Party (Kuomintang).

After all, Ma's ruling KMT has similarly suffered a series of defeats at the polls, beginning with a stunning victory by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party in a legislative by-election in Yunlin County in September, followed by the loss of benchmark Yilan County and a poorer-than-expected vote tally in the Dec. 5 "three-in-one" local polls and a DPP sweep of three legislative by-elections Jan. 9.

Ma and Obama: like night and day

Taipei Times Editorial

Last year was a bad one for national leaders around the world, most of whom were unable to hold their heads high. Although it is difficult to satisfy the public at a time of economic downturn, high unemployment, global warming and complex domestic political, economic and social problems, this is a test of our leaders.

Like US President Barack Obama, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) started off with high approval ratings and has since seen his popularity drop. But these two leaders have responded very differently to the situation.

Central bank must be independent

Taipei Times Editorial

In recent days and weeks, the central bank has been busy refuting market rumors and media speculation that its repeated warnings on inflows of hot money and its checks on banks’ foreign-exchange transactions and forward trades have caused a decline on the stock market.

For its part, the central bank has done what it is required to do to safeguard the nation’s economy, monetary policy and price stability in the long term, although its recent rhetoric did have a direct impact on the exchange rate of the New Taiwan dollar and indirectly on the stock market. Make no mistake, the currency markets can impact equity markets in various ways — and vice versa.

Forcing Taiwan's KMT to Face the Reality of Loss

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The death of a dream and the loss of a country are terrible things to face and admit. It has been sixty years since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost its civil war in China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) drove them into exile. Sixty years! But even though sixty years have passed, many KMT members have still not gone through the five stages of the grieving process and come to accept that loss. Instead, they remain locked in one or other of the earlier stages of grief (denial, anger, and bargaining). Acceptance is too hard a pill to swallow, but as the KMT wallows in its grief, denial and pity, Taiwan suffers.

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