Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

KMT’s woes can be laid at feet of Ma, King

Lu I-ming 呂一銘

Although President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has access to ample party and government resources allowing him to issue both threats and promises, he stumbled in Saturday’s legislative by-elections. This will have an impact on the year-end special municipality elections, and it also shows that Ma no longer has the ability to arouse enthusiasm among pan-blue supporters — voter turnout on Saturday was less than 40 percent — who no longer feel that supporting Ma gives them a sense of mission.

Some voters have said they “feel nothing.” This has created an atmosphere in which pan-blue supporters feel they must abandon Ma to save the pan-blue camp, and some are beginning to talk about supporting Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).

KMT’s paternalism is self-defeating

Taipei Times Editorial

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) attributed his party’s poor performance in Saturday’s by-elections — it only won one of the four legislative seats up for grabs — to “not working hard enough.”

This assessment has a long list of precedents in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, where defeats and setbacks are blamed on poor communication or lack of effort. Never, from its handling of Typhoon Morakot to the US beef debacle, did the KMT admit that political decisions that did not appeal to the public — or policies that are downright wrong — were the principal factor in the administration’s dwindling popular support.

Another lesson for Ma sent by Taiwan voters

Taiwan News Editorial

Saturday's set of four legislative by-elections sent another clear signal to President Ma Ying-jeou and the ruling rightist Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) most Taiwan citizens desire honest, effective, sincere and progressive government and are fed up with deception, incompetence and arrogance.

The loss of three of four legislative seats Saturday marked the latest in a series of electoral setbacks for Ma and the KMT that began with a victory by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party in a legislative by-election in Yunlin County and was followed by a strong DPP showing in the Dec. 5 local elections and a DPP sweep of three legislative by-elections Jan. 9.

China is Ma’s ‘opiate of the masses’

Liberty Times Editorial

Public support for an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) is waning. Far from pulling back from the brink and saying thanks, but no thanks to Beijing, the government put on an orchestrated display with China over the Lunar New Year holidays, governments on both sides acting in concert.

First we had Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) talking to the Taiwanese business community in Zhangzhou, waxing lyrical about an ECFA.

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