Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Yaung's failure is no 'shock' for Taiwan

Taiwan News Editorial

The sudden resignation of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang due to backtracking in President Ma Ying-jeou's right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) on national health insurance system reform exposes to public view the inability of the KMT government to display leadership and responsibility in the resolution of Taiwan's urgent problems.

After the inept and callous response by the Ma government to the massive floods in southern Taiwan triggered by Typhoon Morakot in the "August 8th flood disaster," Ma incessantly reiterated that "the peole's pains are my own pains" and in mid-September replaced the technocratic premier Liu Chao-hsuan with then KMT secretary-general Wu Den-yih, who vowed to implement a policy of "ordinary people's economics."

Taiwan leaders blind to PRC pact politics

Taiwan News Editorial

Premier Wu Den-yih of the rightist Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) administration cast doubt on his qualifications to govern Taiwan last week when he publically acknowledged his blindness to blindness on the political risks of a proposed "cross-strait economic cooperation agreement" with the authoritarian People's Republic of China.

Wu, who was appointed last September by President and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, promised to resign during questioning in the Legislative Yuan March 4 if the term "unification" appeared in the proposed agreement, which Ma wants signed by mid-year.

Is HK democracy to be feared?

Taipei Times Editorial

In January, five opposition legislators representing the five major electoral districts in Hong Kong resigned, triggering special elections scheduled for May 16. Frustrated by the lack of democratic development and interference from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hong Kong’s political affairs, the opposition parties are hoping to turn the special by-election into a de facto referendum on democratic reform.

Beijing condemned the resignations, describing the planned referendum as a challenge to its authority. Most of the parties with ties to the CCP — such as the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the Liberal Party and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions — have let it be known they will boycott the elections.

It’s not Ma’s words, it’s his deeds

Taipei Times Editorial

Opinion polls continue to show low support for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). Many media outlets and political commentators have accused him of ingratiating himself with the public, but shirking responsibility in an empty political show.

The Presidential Office’s spokesperson rejects such claims, saying the government is working hard and that the criticism is “unacceptable.” Ma and his cohorts obviously don’t understand where all the complaints are coming from.

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