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Staff complain about Ma’s busy schedule
PRE-EMPTIVE CONCESSION?: Claiming the president had a full
schedule because of his duties, the Presidential Office said Ma had only two
hours to prepare for the debate
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Apr 25, 2010, Page 1
The Presidential Office yesterday complained that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
had too little time to prepare for today’s debate with Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on a proposed economic cooperation
framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Ma has been busy with
state affairs, meetings and other engagements, leaving him with very little time
to prepare for the debate.
Recently, Ma has been preoccupied with dealing with the physical clashes that
broke out between lawmakers at the legislature, visiting the Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) legislators who were injured during the incident and settling the
dispute between the ruling and opposition parties over the Personal Data
Protection Act (個人資料保護法), Lo said.
“The president has only two hours to prepare for the debate and discuss details
with his advisers,” Lo said. “Sometimes he has to do the preparation at night
because he is too busy during the day. It is very hard to do it at night because
he is extremely tired at the end of the day.”
To better prepare himself for today’s debate, Ma did not attend any public
functions on Friday or yesterday.
Tsai, on the other hand, was in a better position than Ma, Lo said, adding that
Tsai could “wait at ease for the fatigued.”
Lo said that because of Ma’s fatigue and the DPP’s expertise in packaging, many
people predicted that Tsai would perform better than Ma during the debate. Lo
said he believed, however, that it would be easier for Ma to win the public
trust with his “unadorned sincerity.”
Lo said Ma had become very familiar with the details of the policy by consulting
with experts over the past one year.
As long as Ma said what he believed and remained consistent in his argument, he
would prove that Tsai was being “two faced,”acting like an academic but actually
being a politician, Lo said.
The debate, which will begin at 2pm and end at 4:30pm today, will be broadcast
live on Public Television System and its affiliated channels. Ma and Tsai will
each make opening remarks and closing summations as well as ask and respond to
five questions and issue five additional rebuttals. They will each hold a press
conference right after the debate.
In his weekly video address yesterday, Ma vowed to forge ahead with the
Taiwan-China trade pact, saying the administration “will definitely” sign the
proposed accord because it is conducive to Taiwan and its people.
Meanwhile, at a separate setting, DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said
Tsai Ing-wen was maintaining her usual daily routine yesterday, except that she
would go to bed early for a well-rested sleep ahead of today’s debate. Aside
from taking part in events that had been previously scheduled, Tsai Ing-wen
yesterday also spent some time with aides going over the debate one last time,
Tsai Chi-chang said.
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