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ON THE ROPES︰Accused of pushing through
unpopular policies and alienating his own party, Ma is facing a big backlash
only months after winning 51.6% of the vote By
Mo Yan-chih / Staff reporter Sun,
May 20, 2012 - Page 3 President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been a political
star since entering politics. However, as he is slated to be inaugurated
today, public support for him hit a record-low of 23 percent in the latest
poll, released on Friday by the Chinese-language United Daily News. The figure, compared with an average
approval rate of between 60 percent and 70 percent following his inauguration
in 2008, reflects a serious public backlash against his performance over the
past four years. A politician who has long paid great
attention to his public image and tried hard to please the public, Ma made a 180o shift in attitude after he won re-election in
January, as he vowed to leave a legacy and make bold reforms without the
pressure of seeking re-election. Ma subsequently introduced a series
of policies that drew public ire. The policies — from the plan to relax the
ban on beef containing ractopamine to electricity
and fuel price hikes and the proposed capital gains tax — drew a growing public
outcry. Ma brushed off criticism that he
lacked understanding of people’s pain and insisted
on implementing the policies until the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) dramatic defeat in the Lugang
Township (鹿港) mayoral by-election to the Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) last month prompted him to delay the electricity price hikes. Ma’s critics describe him
as a stubborn and arrogant politician who lacks communication and negotiation
skills both as president and KMT chairman. Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒), a political
commentator from National Tunghua University, said
previous victories in elections and popularity among pan-blue supporters have
helped Ma sail through political storms in the past, despite his poor
performance and problematic relations with the KMT’s
local factions. However, with such low public support, times have changed for
Ma, and even party members have started to turn their backs on him. “The KMT legislative
caucus refused to endorse the Cabinet’s draft bill on the capital gains tax,
and it is a warning for Ma, because he is losing the reins even in his own
party. His reluctance to communicate with party legislators is no news, but
legislators will not be as cooperative as before because they cannot afford
to ignore public opinion,” he said. The KMT caucus strayed from the
party line earlier this month when a government-proposed amendment seeking to
conditionally relax a ban on imports of beef containing residue of the
livestock feed additive ractopamine was voted down
during a preliminary review because KMT Legislator Cheng Ju-fen
(鄭汝芬) was deliberately absent. Its open revolt continued as it
blocked the Ministry of Finance’s version of a capital gains tax proposal the
next day. Even KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇),
who has been labeled a loyal soldier of Ma, complained about the Cabinet’s lack of communication with the legislature about its
policies and said: “The KMT caucus will not do whatever the executive branch
wants the caucus to do from now on.” Talk of an “anti-Ma” force within
the KMT also began to circulate after some party members suggested that Ma
should resign as KMT chairman and focus on his duties as the president. Political analyst Yang Tai-shun (楊泰順)
said Ma, who won the presidential re-election in January with 51.6 percent of
vote, suffered a public backlash in such a short time because he failed to
promote major policies that truly benefit the public and demonstrate his
leadership. The government’s recent policies —
on US beef imports, electricity and fuel price hikes and a capital gains tax
— reflected Ma’s negligence of people’s pain and a flip-flop policy-making
process, he said. For example, it is necessary to
adjust fuel and electricity prices to reflect market cost, but the Ma
administration failed to immediately respond to the public outcry over the
policy and did not present measures to handle the rising consumer goods
prices that would result. Although Ma later announced the
government would adjust electricity prices in three stages instead, it only
exposed the government’s flip-flops in policymaking and poor communication
skills, he said. Ku Chung-hwa
(顧忠華) of legislative watchdog Citizen Congress Watch said
that Ma’s problem has always been acting arbitrarily
and the problem could get worse during Ma’s second
term, now that he is not seeking re-election. * 《Taipei times》2012/05/20。
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