《TAIPEI TIMES》 Tsai receives poor ratings in KMT poll

‘BOUNCED CHECKS’: The government failed on many policies, such as creating a social safety net, and did not uphold the cross-strait ‘status quo,’ Alicia Wang said

By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

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President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） scored a little more than six out of 10 for her performance in her first term in seven key areas, including judicial reform, cross-strait relations and diplomatic relations, a poll commissioned by the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） found.

The poll, released on the eve of Tsai’s second inauguration, was conducted by the TVBS Poll Center and asked respondents to rate Tsai’s performance on 10 issues.

Tsai scored 6.19 out of 10 for overall performance, a news conference at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei was told.

She scored 5.62 on improving low wages, 6.12 on social security, 5.88 on youth development, 6.25 on social welfare, 5.92 on protecting labor rights, 6.13 on environmental protection, 4.96 on judicial reform, 5.85 on economic development, 5.52 on cross-strait relations and 5.64 on diplomatic relations, KMT Culture and Communications Committee chair Alicia Wang （王育敏） said.

Tsai’s administration has “bounced the check” on many policy proposals that it made, Wang said.

There has been “no progress” on labor pension reform, a special law for dispatch labor was never passed and a draft minimum wage law has yet to be reviewed, while the issue of overwork has not only not been rectified, but Taiwanese now work the fourth-longest hours in the world, Wang said.

Following the murder of of a firl nicknamed “Little lightbulb” — the daughter of now-New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang （王婉諭） — in 2016, Tsai promised that she would create a social safety net, Alicia Wang said.

The social safety net idea has been a major topic of discussion after the man charged with the killing of Railway Police officer Lee Cheng-han （李承翰） in July last year was found not guilty on April 30 on the grounds of his mental illness.

Justice was not given to Lee, Alicia Wang said, adding: “We have not seen the hole in the social safety net truly patched.”

The Tsai administration has failed to halt the decline in the nation’s fertility rate, with the rate declining for three consecutive years since Tsai took office, Alicia Wang said.

Only 7.9 percent of the 200,000 social housing units Tsai promised to create within eight years’ time have been completed to date, she said.

Tsai has also fallen short in cross-strait relations and diplomacy, as she has been unable to uphold her promise to maintain the cross-strait “status quo,” while her strategy of a “steadfast diplomacy” has led to the loss of seven diplomatic allies, Alicia Wang said.

Tsai needs to make good on her campaign promises, because her popularity does not give her an excuse to forget those promises, she said.

The poll was conducted by telephone interviews with people aged 20 and older over three days: May 8 and Monday and Tuesday last week. It collected 1,080 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES