Former Legislator, Lin Cho-shui had an article in the Liberty Times on 23 August, explaining how pro-Ma 'experts' in Public Television Service tried to push the current PTS president out.
Lin explained that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have always tried to gain total control over the PTS since Ma took office in 2008. In October 2008, they used the fact that two board directors resigned to push for a re-election of the board of directors. This was actually against the PTS law. When their attempt failed, they increased the number of directors and filled those positions with some KMT legislators.
After this, the KMT felt that they still could not have total control over the PTS. They then tried to freeze the PTS budget. This caused an uproar and many petitioned and protested to 'Save the PTS'. This strong public reaction forced them to drop the budget freeze but they immediately used their overwhelming majority in the Parliament to change the PTS law to increase the number of board members again and require the new members to start from the beginning of August. According to Lin, this is against the PTS law because any change should come into effect from the next term rather than immediately.
On 10 August, when everyone was focusing on the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot and the government's lack of actions, pro-Ma board directors asked to re-elect the President while the current one is nowhere near the end of his current term. The term of presidency is protected by the PTS law. A re-election can only take place when the current one leaves in the middle of their term but Ma's supporters keep ignoring the law. Furthermore, Lin said that the current president and board of directors have done very well as the ratings and te quality of programmes within their term have all been great. There is no justification for a re-election of the president or the board if one looks at their competence and achievements.
As their attempt failed on the 10th, those pro-Ma directors tried again on the 17th. The board meeting is supposed to be once a month and has become once a week just because they wanted to change the president. Lin said that if Ma's government had been so keen when it came to rescue efforts, the public may have felt more satisfied about the government. Unfortunately, the blue camp has been more concerned about their political interests, interferering with the public media, rather than the people in need.
Source: Taiwan Matters!
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