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Director questions
why Ma trumpeted rectal polyps, but veiled cross-strait deal
By Feng Yi-en, Lee Hsin-fang and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporters,
with staff writer
Film director Chen Yu-hsun (陳玉勳) recently joined critics in denouncing what he
called President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “black-box operations” in signing a
cross-strait service trade pact, questioning Ma’s motives for keeping the pact
secret, while making known to the world that he has two colorectal polyps.
“Why keep the details of the cross-strait service trade agreement from the
public and the Legislative Yuan, but announce to the world that two polyps had
been found in the entrance of his anus?” Chen said in a message he posted on
Facebook on Saturday night.
Chen was referring to a Presidential Office press release that day that said two
colorectal polyps measuring 2mm in diameter were found 10cm and 25cm from Ma’s
anus during his annual physical exam.
The press release triggered speculation that the government was trying to
detract attention from the backlash against the service trade agreement inked in
Shanghai on Friday. Chen’s message struck a chord with a number of netizens and
attracted nearly 700 “likes” shortly after it was posted.
One netizen said Chen’s comment should make headlines, while another ridiculed
Ma by saying that “the agreement only threatens the lives of others, but the two
polyps could threaten the life of our president!”
In separate messages posted on his Facebook page on Saturday, Chen described
Taiwanese representatives in charge of signing the agreement as “bastards” and
criticized the pact as “a treaty that not only humiliates the nation, but also
forfeits its sovereignty.”
Chen also shared a link to an online signature drive launched by the Taiwan
Solidarity Union to recall Ma over the agreement, urging people to rise above
their political affiliations and join him in deposing the president to prevent
him from selling out the country.
However, Chen on Sunday hid the message concerning Ma’s health examination and
instead shared a news story reporting that he had confronted and challenged Ma
over the accord.
“Does my message constitute a challenge? I don’t think it does, because what Ma
is doing is simply outrageous,” Chen said.
The agreement, under which China will open 80 of its service sectors to
Taiwanese investors, while Taiwan will open 64 sectors, has triggered an outcry
in affected industries, mainly because the government did not disclose details
of the treaty or compile an impact assessment report on the deal’s potential
effects before it was signed.
National policy adviser and publisher Rex How (郝明義) has also strongly criticized
the Ma administration, saying it had failed to consult concerned sectors before
signing the agreement, arrogantly ignored the industries’ demands and lacked
sympathy for small and medium-sized enterprises.
“The publishing business is vigorous, diverse and creative in Taiwan, so we
don’t fear competition from China, but we need the same degree of opening of the
Chinese market,” he told a press conference yesterday in Taipei, where a number
of Taiwanese publishers said the pact opened up the local market to Chinese
publishers, while China has not promised the same degree of openness for
Taiwanese publishers.
“We do not support an agreement that’s signed behind closed doors, without
consulting the publishing business, without assessment of possible impacts and
without mutual benefits,” How added.
Additonal reporting by Loa Iok-sin
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