Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou Rules by Fiat, Why then is No One Listening?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The more one watches Ma Ying-jeou's distant management style, the more one thinks of Swift's floating island of Laputa in his satire, "Gulliver's Travels". From high above, the king of the floating island communicates with his subjects down below via written orders, directives and messages lowered in a basket. His subjects must respond in kind placing requests and petitions in the basket to be hauled up for consideration. Swift is satirizing the Hanover King George I of England who did not speak the language of the people and preferred to rule from afar (Germany to be exact). Ma of course does speak a faltering Taiwanese, but his mind is not on Taiwan. It's elsewhere dreaming of restoring the mythic Republic of China that never lost the Civil War and still rules China by its 1947 Constitution.

No 'peace dividend' for Taiwan people

Taiwan News Editorial

In his first weekly "Governance Dairy" issued Sunday, President Ma Ying-jeou maintained that Taiwan stands to win the lion's share of a "peace dividend" through "making peace and friendship" with the authoritarian People's Republic of China.

The first and most troubling question in the discourse by President Ma, who is also chairman of the ruling right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), is that there is no "peace" in the Taiwan Strait that can create a "dividend."

First it was US beef, then an ECFA

Taipei Times

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) endured possibly the biggest setback of his political career on Tuesday when, after months of to-ing and fro-ing, the legislature finally came around to re-imposing restrictions on certain US beef products.

Not only was the move a slap in the face for the executive — which had negotiated the deal with the US — it was also a severe blow for Ma as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman. KMT legislators put on a show of defiance in passing the amendment, while also laying down the law for the executive on future handling of beef imports.

KMT trumps Taiwan public television

Taiwan News Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou's ruling right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government appears to have finally succeeded in its drive to take control over the Taiwan's Public Television Service Foundation (PTSF), which manages the Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) on behalf of our nation's citizens.

On Monday, a new stacked board of PTSF directors, which are legally mandated to manage the Taiwan Public Television Service (TPS) on behalf of our nation's citizens in the public interest, will elect a new chairman subservient to the restored "formerly authoritarian" ruling party after abrogating the three-year contract of the incumbent a year in advance.

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