6/26/2014
Department of International Affairs - Democratic Progressive Party
In an
interview with the U.S.-based Forbes
magazine, President Ma engaged in willful mischaracterization of the truth with
his claims that the negotiation, signing, and review process of the controversial
Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) were “transparent,” and that the
March student protest movement was caused by the DPP’s obstruction of the
legislative agenda.
1.
President Ma says in the interview that before concluding the cross-strait
agreement, his administration communicated with 46 different industries and
consulted with 264 private sector stakeholders, therefore the process was not a
“black box”. However, as of 2013,
Taiwan’s service sector made up 70% of our GDP, encompassing over 1,000
different industries and 6 million employees. The signing of the cross-strait economic
agreements has a potentially grave impact on countless citizens and
industries. President Ma’s assertion is
a reckless misrepresentation of the facts, demonstrating his administration’s
complete disregard for the interests and future development of our national
industries.
2. CSSTA
caused massive controversy in our society because the negotiations and the signing
process were opaque and non-transparent.
The Ma administration not only did not engage in sufficient communication
with the potentially impacted industries ahead of time, but even the impact
assessment report that holds the key to the agreement’s success or failure was
produced after the backroom agreement had already been signed, and then only
under the pressure of public opinion and civil society groups. The report was hastily and sloppily prepared
by a contracted agency. In the
subsequent 20 “public hearings” that President Ma called “open and transparent”,
the administration did not budge from its position that not even one word of
the agreement could be changed, in spite of the barrage of doubts and
skepticism expressed by the representatives of various industries in the
hearings. Given the government’s refusal
to submit to public oversight, the resulting backlash is not at all surprising.
3.
The party caucuses reached an agreement on June 25, 2013, stipulating that the
CSSTA should be reviewed clause-by-clause in the Legislative Yuan (LY). But before the pact was reviewed, in a
session of the Internal Administrative Committee on March 17, the KMT declared
that as the 90-day review period had expired, the pact should be considered as
reviewed. The KMT attempted to force
through the pact directly to a vote. It
was this kind of deal-breaking, democracy-reversing behavior that fundamentally
triggered the students’ LY occupation and the public uproar in March. In the Forbes
interview, Ma’s claim that “this [30 seconds review by KMT legislator Chang
Ching-chung] was interpreted by some as a move to pass the agreement. In fact, it had not been passed and had not
even left the Legislative Yuan,” and that the student movement was a
“misunderstanding” are willful mischaracterization.
4.
The DPP condemns President Ma’s purposeful distortions of the facts to the
international media, his refusal to communicate with the people, and his
persistent provoking of partisan confrontation and social conflict.
