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Suspicions abound over Ma’s ECFA
deadline
By Jerome Keating
Thursday, Apr 01, 2010, Page 8
It is two years into the reign of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) the incompetent,
and it appears the one-trick pony is getting desperate to defend his efforts to
drag Taiwan into economic dependency on the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
through an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
The latest effort of Ma and his combined hired gun and snake-oil salesman King
Pu-tsung (金溥聰) is a string of expensive TV ads describing how the country will
totally lose its competitiveness if it does not give the government a blank
check to sign an ECFA.
Apparently, if an agreement is not signed by June, it is all over for Taiwan.
Can you believe such absurdities?
For almost two years, Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government has been
preaching that not only is an ECFA absolutely essential, but that it is being
completely transparent about the agreement.
Why, then, after two years of “transparency” does no one know the contents of
the ECFA? Why, then, after two years of transparency does no one know what its
commitments are?
Why do negotiations remain so secret and why is there an absolute rush to get it
all done and signed as quickly as possible?
The bottom line is that if an ECFA is so absolutely essential and so obvious
that it should be as plain as the nose on one’s face, why then does the Ma
government need to be sponsoring high-powered TV ads to sell this “obviousness”?
At first, Ma’s government took the position that an ECFA was not a matter of
concern for the legislature; that it was strictly a trade matter to be arranged
by the government.
Back then, it was something similar to the secret trade negotiations on US beef
done by former National Security Council chief Su Chi (蘇起) that were supposed to
be for the good of the nation. Everyone knows how that ended up.
Then, when Ma’s go-it-alone tactics did not work, he grudgingly bowed to
pressure and said that his government would bring the agreement before the
legislature for its stamp of approval — after it is signed.
Other questions arise about this so-called obvious need and rush by Ma.
Ma’s government has also said that it would be willing to meet with anyone at
any time to explain the agreement, yet Ma has long avoided an open discussion
with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and
certainly won’t allow the ECFA to be made subject to a referendum.
All that has come of the government’s meet-anyone-at-any-time proposals is the
continued propaganda that ECFA is absolutely necessary.
Necessary for what? Secret commitments to China?
The latest is that Taiwan’s TV stations are being bombarded with ads reminiscent
of late Qing-era politics, saying how the country must absolutely sign an ECFA
or it will sink. The ad states that if Taiwan does not sign an ECFA, it will be
marginalized like North Korea.
Why are these ads so necessary to “sell” what Ma claims is so obvious? Perhaps
more importantly, who is paying for these ads? The KMT, Taiwanese taxpayers or
worse, the PRC?
These are the troubles that beset Taiwan as the one-trick pony refuses to let
the people vote on a referendum over something so crucial to their future.
These are the matters that Ma insists must be decided before June.
Does Ma have a two-year window from China that expires at that time?
Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.
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