Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Groups call on Ma and Jiang to step down

Taipei Times

Activists clash with police during a protest in front of the Executive Yuan yesterday. The protesters demanded that President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Jiang Yi-huah step down.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

Groups protesting what they called high-level governmental officials’ lack of political responsibility toward an adulterated cooking oil scandal yesterday clashed with police in front of the Executive Yuan, while calling for both President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) to step down.

Taiwan Adequate Housing Association president Huang Yi-chung (黃益中) said that the Executive Yuan’s plans to establish a food security office was “a joke” and the nation would be much better off if Jiang resigned from office.

Boycott represents Ma’s failings

Chin Heng-wei 金恆煒

This is a fresh tale of official practices, or perhaps of the actions of an inferior government.

When Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) asked National Development Council Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) in the legislature if he was boycotting Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) products, Kuan answered: “I support a boycott and I have already taken action by not buying their products.”

Rumors are spread for a reason

Taipei Times Editorial

“A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” And to make matters worse, their effect on the electorate when an election enters the home stretch can be enormous — providing the undecided a defense, in Taipei’s case, to fall back on for not voting for a certain candidate. Lies are “lies” only when they have been proven wrong; until then, they are called allegations, or simply “rumors.”

An interesting example can show how people are easily duped, maybe willingly, by rumors citing neutral data, but accompanied by political aspersions.

HK police attack protest barricades

Taipei Times

Police officers remove barricades of pro-democracy protesters in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong yesterday.
Photo: AFP

Hong Kong police yesterday vowed to tear down more street barricades manned by pro-democracy protesters, hours after hundreds of officers armed with chainsaws and boltcutters partially cleared two major roads occupied for two weeks.

In a concerted effort to reduce the territory held by protesters, police tore down barricades in the bustling shopping district of Causeway Bay and on the edge of the main protest encampment in Admiralty, near the city government’s headquarters. They also vowed to target protester cordons in Mongkok, a working-class district known for its triad gangs, where violence has previously broken out.

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