|
Woman criticizes Ma,
commits suicide
TRAGEDY: Although firefighters had prepared an
air cushion on the ground, they did not have time to inflate it sufficiently
before Kuan Shu-ying leapt to her death
By Wu Yueh-hsiu and Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporters
An uninflated airbag lies outside
the Taipei apartment building from which Kuan Shu-ying jumped to her death on
Saturday.
Photo: Wu Yueh-hsiu, Taipei Times
A 53-year-old woman in Taipei jumped to
her death on Saturday morning, leaving behind a note accusing President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) of incompetence and of showing no concern for the sufferings of people.
Kuan Shu-ying (管淑櫻) climbed to the rooftop of the apartment building where she
lived on Xinsheng N Road in Taipei at about 4:45am on Saturday. Police and
firefighters soon arrived on the scene after receiving telephone calls from
onlookers concerned to find Kuan sitting on the roof’s parapet.
Despite efforts to try to convince her to come down, Kuan refused, murmured
criticisms of the government and jumped from the 11-story building.
Kuan left behind seven notes — six addressed to her family and one for Ma. In
the latter, she called Ma an “incompetent president.”
In the note, Kuan said that, as a national leader, Ma frequently “does things
that the people cannot understand” and that he is not fit to be president.
Kuan also accused the judiciary of being untrustworthy. Citing the recent scare
over tainted oil, she said the way that the government handled it only made
people feel more insecure.
“What’s the point of living in these circumstances?” Kuan wrote.
She went on to question whether Ma “would sleep well at night” as people suffer,
and that a taxi driver who committed suicide to protest against government
policies would not be the last person to do so.
Kuan was referring to the 58-year-old taxi driver who jumped from a bridge in
Yangmingshan National Park last month, leaving a note criticizing the political
infighting between Ma and Legislative Yuan Speaker Wan Jin-pyng (王金平).
“Tonight, I am going to give another life to you, which is mine,” Kuan declared
at the end of the note.
Although firefighters had prepared an air cushion on the ground, they did not
have time to inflate it sufficiently before Kuan jumped to her death.
Kuan’s friends and relatives told the media that she was disillusioned by Ma and
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and often criticized the president and the
party.
However, they did not expect Kuan to take such extreme action and were shocked
by her death.
|
