During the election Ma Ying-jeou promised that no Chinese workers would be permitted into Taiwan. Of course, letting in Chinese workers, proposed as early as 1991, was probably a foregone conclusion. Is this an isolated case, or the camel's nose in the tent?A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator and a labor rights group yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of breaking a campaign promise not to open the market to Chinese workers, after the Council of Agriculture began allowing Chinese fishermen to operate at a fishing port and announced plans to extend the measures.
On Aug. 12, while attending a National Fisheries Conference, Ma said the government would loosen restrictions, allowing Chinese fishermen to work in fenced off, monitored areas at certain fishing ports to help their employers with a wider array of tasks.
Ma said at the time that it would be unreasonable to ban the fishermen from performing certain tasks if they were allowed to work at the ports.
The government expanded the fenced-off port area for Chinese workers at Nanfangao (南方澳) fishing port in Ilan County on Aug. 5 to allow them to perform tasks such as unloading cargo.
The DPP argues Ma broke his campaign promises. The government argues that Taiwanese workers won't take such jobs.
[Taiwan]
It becomes a bigger problem when you get a camel toe in your tent.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like I'm hearing the John McCain of Taiwan say, "You can't pick lettuce for US$50/hour. You can't do it, my pengyoumen."
ReplyDeleteThis McCain sucks, too.
Tim Maddog
Ironic choice. You may not like him, but he is consistently the stronger supporter of Taiwan. Do some research.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of...who supports whom...
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine has been smoking Fox news and was trying to tell me the Obama campaign was just like Ma Ying-jiu's... in kind of a lame strategy to make me a McCain supporter.
He then listed Obama's "Messiah complex" as "proof" and also cited how he didn't like some of the people Obama was hanging out with.
It never dawned on him that many of his close friends in the TI movement were, during the same period Ayers was a Weatherman, anti-establishment "terrorists" and many of them did time in jail for plotting against the KMT regime. Many of them considered bombing and killing KMT leadership to help achieve their political goals or at least draw attention to their goals. Some even planned to raise an army of Taiwanese to fight the KMT with guns. A few were part of an assassination plot against the sitting head of state.
So the logic to condemn Obama for meeting with Ayers decades after his period of radicalization and labeling Ayers an "unrepentant terrorist" you are also blackballing the DPP leadership and thousands of Taiwan supporters who took radical steps to combat what they felt was institutionalized injustice and in effect... supporting the KMT's position that the "Greens" are a bunch of radicals and anti-government schemers that should be exiled from the political sphere.