TAIWAN-ELECTION/REAX Taiwanese spilt over President Ma's resignation as party chairman

Record ID: 862698

  • Title: TAIWAN-ELECTION/REAX Taiwanese spilt over President Ma's resignation as party chairman
  • Date: 4th December 2014
  • Summary: PICTURES OF MA HUGGING MEMBER OF CENTRAL STANDING COMMITTEE
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2014 12:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAPRN0EQXHNFYGA806DAP4Y3CI
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  • Story Text: Opinions of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou were split on the streets of Taipei on Thursday (December 4), the day after the president formerly stepped down as leader of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) following a dismal local election showing.
    Speaking in front of delegates from his party's central standing committee on Wednesday (December 3), Ma said the losses had left him deeply ashamed. His resignation from the party post does not affect his position as president.
    He is serving his second, and final, four-year term as president, which ends in 2016.
    The losses Ma faced reflects an increasingly wide schism in public opinion on how the Island should conduct its relations with China. After years of severed diplomatic and trade ties, relations had warmed considerably between the two countries due to reforms under Ma's tenure.
    "Even though a lot of people are criticizing him, I think he's done well, he needs to continue pushing his reforms. But It's useless if the legislators won't cooperate, (the people) gave the Kuomintang so many legislative seats, but all the legislators can't do anything. I think legislators of Kuomintang need a smack on the bottom," 62 year old Wang Chung said.
    But 42 year old Chou Lan-Shih said Ma had lost all credibility with the voters.
    "The fact that Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected (as a Taiwanese president) shows the Taiwanese people wanted to give him another opportunity, but during the second four years he's proved even less popular among the people than in the first 4 years. So I think it really is right that he steps down, and what's more these elections have proved that Taiwanese people have given him a hard beating, we won't support him anymore," she said.
    The pace of improvement in cross-strait relations could slow next year as Ma is not likely be able to effectively steer policy within the ruling party and in government due to the losses.
    The party of Chiang Kai-shek that retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949 is seen as friendly to China even though Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take back the island.
    In the past year, suspicions that Taiwan is becoming too reliant on China economically at the cost of the island's political autonomy has manifested itself in demonstrations.
    In March, thousands of protesters, blocked the ratification of a cross-strait trade services agreement in an unprecedented sit-in in parliament.
    Hundreds of people, many of them young, gathered in Taipei's Liberty Square in October to rally in sympathy with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
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