Extraits :
- "It started early last month, when a Taiwanese boy handed his coin-filled piggy bank to the opposition candidate for president, only to have the government declare the donation illegal because minors are prohibited from involvement in political campaigns. That gave rise to the [DPP]’s “Three Little Pigs” movement [...]."
- "With a nod to the fairy tale, the DPP has been handing out hamster-sized, plastic piggy banks in shiny oranges and reds. The idea is that by banding together to make small donations, tens of thousands of economically challenged workers and farmers can overcome the big bad wolf of Taiwanese corporate power and defeat incumbent Ma Ying-jeou and his supposedly capitalist cronies in the Jan. 14 presidential poll."
- "Scion of a wealthy family, the soft-spoken Tsai has been transformed almost overnight from a wonkish intellectual whose privileged background allowed her to study abroad, into a Robin Hood-like heroine committed to lifting the poor from the hardships of life."
- "“Millions of piggies are showing their anger against the Ma government,” Hu wrote. “They embody a demand for revolutionary change.”"
Extraits :
- "The shooting of a high-ranking member of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) on the eve of the Nov. 27 [2010] municipal elections is widely believed to have helped the KMT win with a larger-than-expected margin in Taipei City and Xinbei City. The results caused those who had placed underground bets on the [DPP] winning to lose huge amounts of money, and turned bookmakers into the biggest winners."
- "Wagers totaling several billions of Taiwan dollars were placed on either the KMT or the DPP winning three out of the five seats up for grabs in mayoral elections in the special municipalities, according to sources."
- "Some of [betting players] also speculated that the person or persons behind the shooting could be related to gambling rings trying to influence the outcomes of the elections for their own benefit."
Extraits :
- So far, bookmakers in northern Taiwan had still not started accepting bets. However, bookmakers in southern Taiwan had given even odds on a Ma Ying-jeou win with a point spread of 300,000 votes; in other words, the bookies favored Ma Ying-jeou.
Extraits :
- Dealers make up a complex assortment of people. Some are gang members and use their influence in the underworld to control elections to a certain extent. Others are people’s representatives, manipulating the elections through underground betting to support their own political parties. Some are simply wealthy.
- One dealer in central Taiwan said Tsai’s nearly blank political record makes it hard for the pan-blue camp to dig up dirt on her, adding that the controversy over DPP vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan’s farmhouse had blown over and that the success of the “three little pigs” campaign, the Ma administration’s peace accord proposal and the controversial Dreamers drama continued to batter Ma’s election efforts.
BOOKIE BROUHAHA (from Taipei Times)
Extraits :
- [...] Next Magazine wrote that Ma met Chen Ying-chu in Chiayi on September 10 and asked him for financial and electoral support. He also thanked him for reportedly contributing at least NT$100 million (US$3.3 million) to his reelection campaign, according to the magazine. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party put the figure at NT$300 million (US$9.9 million).
- The magazine linked the alleged meeting to previous incidents of electoral violence possibly related to gambling. On the eve of a hard-fought re-election bid in 2004, President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu were injured in a shooting incident on a Tainan street. Last year, Sean Lien, the son of former Vice President Lien Chan, was shot and injured while he stood on stage at a local election rally.
- The magazine said Ma and Chen were old acquaintances, since they also met three times in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Prominent people with close links to Ma, such as election strategist King Pu-tsung and the president’s sister, Ma Yi-nan, also met with Chen during local election campaigns in the South, Next wrote.
- The president’s alleged meeting with the top gambler was seen as a desperate move to turn around Ma’s situation in southern Taiwan, traditionally a DPP stronghold.
Extraits :
- Chen is reportedly involved in international online gambling and in betting on Taiwanese elections. He also has a criminal record, Next wrote.
- Ma denied he had time on his schedule for any private meetings while in Chiayi that day, though he said he had met Chen on two previous occasions, in 2008 and 2009.
- The Next Magazine allegations could damage Ma’s image in the run-up to the January 14 presidential and legislative elections. Ma acquired an image of integrity and honesty while serving as Minister of Justice in the 1990s.
Extraits :
- [...] the decision by Ma's culture minister Emile Sheng -- as the world economy faltered -- to spend US$7.17 million of public money on the rock musical "Dreamers", which was performed only twice, prompting a firestorm that led last week to his resignation. "It's difficult to justify the musical when the economy is flagging, the wealth gap keeps widening while unemployment is rising," said Tung Chen-yuan, a political scientist at National Chengchi University.
- Ma's administration has come under fire for policies seen as misguided in an age where the wealth gap in traditionally egalitarian Taiwan is widening.
- The agriculture ministry had to scrap a plan to cancel free milk for impoverished children, and add a scheme to boost subsidies for elderly farmers, amid criticism that it was not doing enough for the disadvantaged. "(The cost) of the musical could have kept poor kids drinking milk for 21 years," the China Times newspaper said in a commentary.
Exclusive: TIME Meets Taiwan Presidential Hopefuls Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai Ing-wen
Extraits :
- The article said that Beijing was putting out the word through pro-China groups in Taiwan that Beijing wants all 1 million China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to return home to vote in the elections, adding that the claim that some Taiwanese businessmen have been told that “if you can mobilize more votes for Ma, you will find doing business in China far easier in the future.”
- Ma’s re-election campaign efforts are also being undermined by what the Asahi Shimbun -described as a generally held perception that “the government lacks the perspective of the common people,” referring to the Dreamers (夢想家) rock musical debacle, a show that cost NT$215 million (US$7.1 million) and was staged for only two nights, as well as the initial decision to increase elderly farmers’ monthly pensions by a meager NT$316.
- The analysis in the Asahi Shimbun pointed out that the KMT prefers to focus on cross-strait peace and economic development, together with the concept of safety, stability and ease of mind for all Taiwanese.
- The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), it said, is stressing fairness and justice, adding that DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had said she would begin dialogue with China within four months if elected.
- Meanwhile, the Yomiuri Shimbun, said cross-strait relations were the biggest issue in the elections and although Ma and Tsai both want to maintain cross-strait peace, Ma recognizes the so-called “1992 consensus,” while Tsai does not “because Taiwan is already an independent sovereignty different from China.”
- The article said various polls have shown support for the two main presidential candidates to be neck-and-neck, but that the addition of Soong to the campaign, meant that some pan-blue voters would not be voting for Ma, adding that “the common view is that things are looking bad for Ma.”
Taipei Times : 2012 ELECTIONS: Piggy banks back at DPP election HQ
Extraits:
- [Tsai] said the [KMT] has continued to try to sully her and her party’s image because the government has no achievements to boast about.
- “[...] it only has smear tactics left for the campaign,” she said. “It has tried to pass off all responsibilities to the former DPP government.”
- “If [this] government is still living in 2008, let it stay in the past, while society moves forward into 2012 with the DPP,” she said.
Extraits :
- Taiwan needs to change its leadership and elect a visionary to revamp its economy and safeguard its sovereignty in the coming four years, [Tsai] said Saturday.
- "If President Ma really had accomplished outstanding administrative achievements and had managed to deliver on his campaign promises, the ruling party would not have needed to use this kind of negative campaign strategy to attack me," Tsai contended.