Taiwan's Economy Continues Sinking but Ma Ying-jeou Wants to Bring Back Chiang Kai-shek

Monday September 08, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

I attended a presentation by Vice Premier Chiu Cheng-hsiung today and what he said about the world and Taiwan's economy were not encouraging. Quoting Global Insight he predicted the growth of the world economy will slow to 3% this year and 2.8% next year. Taiwan's growth would fall from 5.72% last year to 4.3% this year. Plus Taiwan's CPI would go up 3.74%. Now Taiwan is in much better shape than most countries in Asia, but since Ma Ying-jeou had predicted the growth would reach 6% under him, (he later changed and said it would only be by 2016) things do not look good.

The talk shows are already buzzing with complaints against Ma and some callers are talking of pelting him with eggs and/or tomatoes. One person even asked how much bigger the fine would be if he hit Ma with five eggs instead of one. An interesting question.

Ma however, seems still lost in lah-lah land. Now he has decided that a way to stimulate the economy would be to add a holiday to the calendar. He wants to commemorate Chiang Kai-shek's birthday on October 31. What Taiwan doesn't need is another divisive move like that; others have commented that it is symbollic that Chiang was born on Halloween. Let's see, what did the talk show host say was the penalty for hitting Ma with five eggs?