Chen's Approval Rating at 5.8%

Chen's approval rating at 5.8 percent
Bevin Chu
May 17, 2006

TSU poll shows Chen's approval rating at 5.8 percent
CNA , TAIPEI
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

President Chen Shui-bian's approval rating has dropped to a new low of just 5.8 percent, with 88 percent of respondents dissatisfied with the performance of Chen's administration over the past six years, according to the results of a survey released yesterday.

The survey was conducted by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) -- the Democratic Progressive Party's ally in the pan-green camp -- on 69 civic groups from May 5 through May 12.

The respondents gave the administration's overall performance a failing grade of 57.5 percent.

Ho Min-hao, head of the TSU's policy committee, said the survey results reflected the government's failure to pay attention to domestic affairs.

While 64 percent of respondents thought that the government has not worked hard enough to improve the nation's economy over the past six years, 72 percent were dissatisfied with the deteriorating law and order situation, the survey found.

Seventy-three percent of the respondents said they thought that the average citizen's life is not that good, and 63 percent said they were unhappy with the government's failure to take care of disadvantaged groups.

As many as 81 percent of the respondents doubted the integrity of officials in Chen's administration, and 90 percent think Chen should take responsibility for the corruption cases involving government officials that have occurred over the past six years.

Ninety-one percent of the respondents were supportive of the Cabinet's decision to suspend Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng from his duties over his suspected role in a government procurement scandal.

In addition, 10 percent said that they were in favor of enacting a new constitution.

Comment: For six years, Taiwan independence media spin controllers have been dismissing Pan Blue majority opposition criticism of Pan Green government as "chang shuai tai wan" (poormouthing Taiwan).

Pan Blue majority opposition commissioned polls were automatically dismissed as push polls, despite the fact they were uncannily accurate, and in fact, matched the poll results of confidential, Eyes Only polls commissioned by the DPP leadership.

But now the Deep Green Taiwan Solidarity Union has published its own poll, and the results are even less flattering to its fellow Pan Green ally, the DPP than Pan Blue camp polls.

Chen Shui-bian, the "Son of Taiwan," received a 5.8% approval rating, not according to the Deep Blue New Party, not according to the KMT, not according to the PFP, but according to its own Pan Green ally, the TSU.

How are Taiwan independence media spin controllers going to rationalize this away?

Frankly, I hope they try. Frankly, I hope they bury their heads in the sand like ostriches. Frankly, I hope they play the McCarthyite Red Scare card.

Because if they do, they will only accelerate the rate at which the Chinese people on Taiwan forsake Taiwan independence rabble-rousers, Taiwan independence political parties, and Taiwan independence ideology.

Bear in mind that most Pan Green camp polls, particularly those published during an election campaign, are nothing more than push polls.

So how does one tell when a Pan Green poll is actually a scientific poll and not a push poll?

Simple. One compares it to Pan Blue camp polls conducted around the same time.

The results of the above mentioned TSU poll largely conform to the results of the below illustrated poll released by the Pan Blue oriented United Daily News on May 18, 2006, therefore the TSU poll is probably on the up and up.


United Daily News Poll, May 18, 2006

The title at the top of the chart reads "Changes in Satisfaction Ratings for the DPP." The red line tracks increasing public dissatisfaction with DPP. The green line tracks decreasing public satisfaction with DPP. The dates along the bottom are Year of the Republic dates. The date on the far right "955" is the "95th Year of the Republic, May" i.e., May 2006.

Sad, isn't it, that the Pan Green camp has so thoroughly discredited itself, that its allegations can only be believed when they are confirmed by the Pan Blue majority opposition?

Notice that according to the Taiwan Solidarity Union poll, a mere 10% of the public favors the authoring of a new "Taiwanese Constitution" to replace the Chinese Constitution already in place?

You know the Deep Green TSU is being uncharacteristically honest when it announces a poll result so obviously unfavorable to its own Taiwan independence agenda.

So why did the TSU do it?

The TSU did it because although the TSU and the DPP are Pan Green camp allies, they are also Pan Green camp rivals. The TSU hopes to profit from the potential dissolution of the DPP as an organized political party. The TSU is behaving like a shark ready to feed on a wounded member of its own kind.

The TSU wants to persuade the public that if it was the leader of the Pan Green camp instead of the DPP, these numbers would be different. The TSU wants to persuade the public that if it was the leader of the Pan Green camp instead of the DPP, Taiwan independence would be a reality instead of a rapidly receding pipe dream.

That of course is nonsense. TSU godfather Lee Teng-hui had 12 long years during which he could have declared Taiwan independence at any time

But he never did.