語文法資管教育博士陳昱元 語文法資管教育博士陳昱元

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語文法資管教育博士陳昱元
Comments on President Ma Ying-jeou ‘s Speech to Mark the 101st Anniversary of the Republic of China. （Written by Dr. James YuhYuan Chen, in Tainan, Taiwan）

President Ma Ying-jeou made his speech to mark the 101st anniversary of the Republic of China. In practice, his performance in opinion polls has plunged to record depths of 13 percent.

The president promised economic reforms, trade liberalization and higher wages. Only last month, but Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang resigned after Premier Sean Chen refused to raise the basic minimum wage to NT$19,047 (US$649) from the coming New Year. The administrative experts accused the Ma Administration of sacrificing the interests of workers and low-wage earners to benefit Big Business and the wealthy amid a tough economic crisis. Actually, the real economic reforms are not for the public good, but for the big business.  

“Our industry must move toward higher value-added development; only then will labor productivity increase and salary levels rise,” Ma said in his Double Ten speech. Obviously, whatever Ma is concerned with is the big bosses’ benefits, not with the public.

“Taiwan should become a supplier of key components, precision equipment and innovative services,” Ma said. “The country should thus become an irreplaceable producer of top-quality technology products,” Ma said. In reality, Ma was only producing words that the public would feel comfortable but no action had been taken visibly.

In addition, Ma emphasized the importance of international trade. “Once domestic and foreign investment grows, the economy will thrive, and jobs will increase.”  No policies and no concrete measures were mentioned. President Ma never understands that “Actions speak louder than words.”

Ma said his government needed to eliminate controls on the labor market to match modern trends while maintaining a balance between investment promotion and labor rights. Practically, workers imported harm the domestic workers’ human rights because of unemployment. Ma’s intention was doubted.

Ma underlined his prominent policy of trying to sign Free Trade Agreements with other nations, including Singapore, New Zealand, and the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement concluded with China in 2010. What are benefits for Taiwanese because of these agreements？What are contents in these agreements? No one knows.

Realistically, the Taiwanese economy’s main problem is that its businesses have lost their ability to create new jobs. Also, the results of economic growth were not distributed equally due to the gap between rich and poor continuing to grow. Whatever President Ma said are just slogans. The president has been in power at least for five years, still people’s living standards are getting worse.