Taiwan President Is Target of Anger After Typhoon

Taiwan President Is Target of Anger After Typhoon

www.nytimes.com

CHISHAN, Taiwan — If President Ma Ying-jeou thought he might be treated presidentially on Wednesday as he toured a center for survivors of last weekend’s typhoon, he was mistaken.

The moment he stepped onto a soccer field that had been doubling as a landing pad for rescue helicopters, Mr. Ma was besieged by angry villagers who accused his administration of moving too slowly to help those still trapped in the mountains near here.

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As they hurled insults at him, the skies opened and Mr. Ma quickly became drenched to the skin, all of it captured live on television.

“Save us, people are dying,” the villagers yelled while holding aloft handmade banners that read “The government doesn’t value human life.”

On Monday, during an earlier tour of his waterlogged nation, Mr. Ma was seen promising a bulldozer to a man who was searching for the body of his father. Two days later, after failing to persuade officials to make good on the pledge, the man, Lee Yu-ying, was forced to rent his own equipment to dig out his father’s mud-encased car.

“What kind of help was that?” Mr. Lee asked TVBS, a cable news channel.

Aijo Wu, a 23-year-old law student who has had no word from her extended family in the village of Taoyuan, was the last person to talk to Mr. Ma before his security detail whisked him away. She begged him to speed up the pace of the rescue efforts, but after he left she was less timid in her comments to reporters.

“If there are 20,000 people stranded but the army is only using 30 of their helicopters, a lot of people are going to die,” she said. “I’m angry that the president won’t ask the outside world for help.”

Family members and Taiwanese media cast a critical eye on the government's response, focusing on President Ma Ying-jeou. "The rescue has been too slow. The government rescue team doesn't seem to be well coordinated. It doesn't look like we have enough resources, either," said Chang Hsiu-yu, a Taipei resident whose relatives have been trapped in a village next to Shiao Lin.

Critics focused on the Ma administration's decision to refrain from issuing an emergency order that would give the government greater power to requisition personnel and equipment. The government has also declined to ask for assistance from international organizations.

www.nytimes.com
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I found this CNN talk asia...
Looks like a jolly nice fellah...

Ma Ying-jeou: Creating closer ties
The story
Elected with the largest margin of victory in the history of Taiwan's presidential elections, President Ma Ying-jeou is aiming to bring the good times back to Taiwan while looking to a friendlier future with China.

Winning 58 percent of the vote, Ma was swept to victory on the promise of economic growth but through the more controversial method of building closer ties with China.

reply to post by ChemBreather


Yeah, I know that one. Obama also seemed like a jolly nice fellow in the beginning

You can find out about the chaos here in November 2008 at BBC

The media always knows how to make someone look good while that person is supported by the ruling elite, and then when they are sick of that person, they will start making them look bad in the news and then maybe topple the government...

In the past the Wall Street Journal very much supported Ma. Now they don't mind writing negative reports on him...

Shades of Katrina .....


...

I was in Taiwan a few months ago and can safely say this guy is is as good as HUNG in public opinion.

During the recent Typhoon he rejected International help which sounds a lot like what the Neighbour they were once fighting for independence from style of actions

I wonder if this will cause a revolution, or even a reunion with the mainland.

reply to post by Somamech


That's because he's one of them himself. You know the horrible tyrant dictator Chiang Kai Shek ? Well, Mr. Ma's administration actually named the Memorial Hall back to his name with his plaque, after it had been "illegally" (so they say) changed by the former government to National Democracy Hall or something like that.

Mr. Ma even once cried over Kai Shek's tomb.

When he was the mayor of Taipei, he had the subway system extended, which has now broken down, because he insisted on using a system that would normally be incompatible with the already existing one.

He also had a cable car system built on fragile land outside of Taipei on a mountain, so every time we get a typhoon, the cable car system slides down the hill a little bit more with each mudslide. Yet the Taipei government still insists that it can be fixed and that it's workable....I would NEVER use it!

Soon they will also have the Deaflympics, for which they built a swimming pool that does not meet the international standards. So they need to have the swimming competition in another town in Taiwan.

I wonder what scandal they will defend next...as you said, he's already hung...we knew he'd be hung when the sheeple voted him as President...and we also knew we were f$%*d.

[edit on 13-8-2009 by MightyAl]

reply to post by Donnie Darko


Any attempt in reunion with the mainland, or any rumour about it, will create a demonstration, but the Taiwanese today are not "rebelish" enough to actually launch a revolution. That would be great if enough people had the guts for that! I'd join as long as the government didn't a) take out their guns, b) put me in jail, c) deport me

Originally posted by MightyAl
reply to post by Donnie Darko

 

Any attempt in reunion with the mainland, or any rumour about it, will create a demonstration, but the Taiwanese today are not "rebelish" enough to actually launch a revolution. That would be great if enough people had the guts for that!

I'd join as long as the government didn't a) take out their guns, b) put me in jail, c) deport me

What I was saying, actually, is would this tragedy possibly make Taiwan lose faith in being independent from China and want to join Beijing?

Originally posted by Donnie Darko
Shades of Katrina .....


...

Sure there are some obvious parallels but I'm sure there are also some local, state or provincial leaders that share the blame, ala Blanco and Nagin.

I expect some local leader to declare their town "the Chopstick City"

reply to post by MightyAl



Hey thanks for that reply! I will send you a pm over the course of the next few days as I have some questions regarding the National Museum.

Yep so damn true, Ma is as far as I can gather a shrill from the PRC. Actually I must stop here as the topic makes my blood boil along with the Tibet Issue.

Btw I loved every 32 days I spent in Taiwan, the most underrated Country to visit inmho and yes I am closely related to the area through friends and my wife to be

Rock on Taiwan