Grim warning to the Ma administration

Among the most interesting and significant findings were: (1) 67 percent of the respondents to the survey complained about the lack of the administrative ability of officials, an increase of 3 percent over last year. 57 percent questioned the administrative efficiency of the government, an increase of 4 percent, which was the highest percentage revealed by similar surveys in 15 years. (2) The survey also found that with the visit to Taiwan by Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), as well as the realization of “three direct links,” 62 percent of those queried believed cross-strait relations were warming up. However, the intriguing thing was that despite the perceived improvement of cross-strait relations, 61 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as “Taiwanese,” a rise of 11 percent over that of 2006, while those who considered themselves “Chinese” decreased from 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent.

Let's examine the first point of the survey results mentioned above. It was indeed surprising to know that the administration under the leadership of Ma Ying-jeou, a politician well-known for his intelligence and integrity, was believed by the majority of locals to be less competent and less efficient than the notoriously corrupt Chen Shui-bian regime, which it had ousted in a landslide victory. There's little doubt the Ma faithful would lose no time in pointing out that the serious global economic and financial recession was the major culprit for the poor performance of the current government.

However, it must be noted that in making their evaluation, the people of Taiwan must have already taken the effect of the worsening world economic situation into consideration, which was largely beyond Ma's control. In fact, many of the problems facing Ma and his team now are the results of their own making. For example, it is generally acknowledged that most of the officials are too slow to react to fast-changing domestic and international developments. For another, the serious gaffes made continuously by high-ranking officials could only decimate public confidence in the government again and again in its ability to rule the country, so much so that it may prove fatal to its credibility.

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