Ma facing first political backlash

Ma facing first political backlash


Notes:

backlash

a strong negative reaction by a number of people against recent events, especially against political or social developments

By David Young, The China PostTAIPEI, Taiwan -- President-elect Ma Ying-jeou is facing a political crisis less than three weeks before he is to be sworn in. It is the appointment of Lai Hsing-yuan on Monday as chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council that touched off the crisis.
Premier-designate Liu Chao-shiuan named Lai, a former lawmaker of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, to the sensitive MAC post, apparently by Ma's orders.
On Tuesday, the TAIEX weighted index plunged 187 points to reflect investors' loss of confidence in the improvement of relations between Taiwan and China after the Lai appointment.
Lai is a protege of former President Lee Teng-hui, who is the spiritual leader of the strongly pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union.
Lee was condemned as a separatist by China after he proclaimed his "special state-to-state relationship" between Taiwan and China towards the end of 1999. It is considered a "two-China" doctrine, an anathema to China, which vows to take Taiwan back to its fold by force, if necessary.
The stock market recovered yesterday, a rise of 28.18 points, but the Kuomintang canceled its regular central standing committee meeting, where there was fear party heavyweights would blast Ma for the "idiotic" appointment.
Protest calls swamped the Kuomintang central office switchboard. Hundreds of thousands of calls were received. Most of them demanded that Lai be fired outright. Many complained that Ma let down the 7.65 million angry supporters who voted for him on March 22. Only two of the calls supported what Kuomintang leaders call the appointment blunder.
Ma, who will be inaugurated on May 20, defended the appointment, claiming that it wasn't President Lee who wanted Lai to be given the MAC job. "It's us who drafted Lai," the president-elect said Tuesday. That drew even more protest.
Kuomintang leaders are deeply concerned that the Lai appointment spoils any chance to improve cross-Strait relations. Lawmaker Chiu Yi, noting "anybody who decided to recruit Lai should have his head examined," demanded the ex-TSU legislator be fired now.
Lai must step down if Ma fails to keep his campaign promise to get weekend direct charter flights across the Strait started on July 4, Chiu went on. "Why," Chiu said, "it's easier to tide over the crisis by canceling the appointment now."

Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman-designate of the Mainland Affairs Council, poses hand-in-hand with P.K. Chiang, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation. They appeared in a press conference yesterday where Lai told reporters she would abide by ...
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I found out another article which maintained about "backlash",


Political Backlash Builds Over High-Stakes Testing
Public Support Wanes for Tests Seen as Punitive
By Peter WhoriskeyWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, October 23, 2006; Page A03
LAUDERHILL, Fla. -- School exams may be detested by students everywhere, but in this state at the forefront of the testing and accountability movement in the United States, the backlash against them has become far broader, and politically potent.
The role of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, has become central to the race to succeed Gov. Jeb Bush (R), with polls showing a growing discontent over the exams, which he has championed and which are used to determine many aspects of the school system, including teacher pay, budgets and who flunks third grade.

"We're going to stop using the FCAT to punish children, teachers and schools," Florida gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis said Saturday. (By J. Pat Carter -- Associated Press)
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Republican Charlie Crist is offering to push forward with the testing regime, but Democrat Jim Davis has condemned what he calls its "punitive" nature, arguing that exam pressures have transformed schools into "dreary test-taking factories."
"Couple years ago one of my sons brought this quiz home, and the first question was 'What does the FCAT stand for?' " Davis told a meeting of clergy here Saturday. "I won't repeat to you what I said because I used words I'm teaching my boys not to use. . . . We're going to stop using the FCAT to punish children, teachers and schools."
This election season may be the first in which the growing use of high-stakes school testing, embodied in the No Child Left Behind legislation, has reached this level of political prominence.
A similar exam revolt has become a key issue in the race for governor in Texas, another state in the vanguard of the testing movement, and the issue has roiled the Ohio gubernatorial contest as well.
High-stakes testing -- using standardized test scores to impose consequences affecting teachers and students -- has been embraced widely in recent years as a way to hold educators and students accountable for their performance. Experts say the movement is one of the most significant shifts in U.S. education in decades.
Texas and Florida were among the states that adopted high-stakes testing early, and each has pushed its program beyond what is required in No Child Left Behind.
Advocates say that under the pressure of the exams, students in Florida, Texas and elsewhere have shown significant improvements. The testing systems include the public release of schools' results and test-based financial incentives for educators, and determine which third-graders can be promoted and which high school students can graduate.
But teachers unions and some parents groups have argued that an overemphasis on the tests has reduced education to rote drills and needlessly heightened stresses on elementary students, and that the reported test gains have been illusory, overstated or short-lived.
Many opponents say they do not object to the testing but to the high stakes attached to the results, which they say force schools to develop a myopic curriculum focused on the test.
In Florida, as many as 14 percent of 200,000 public school third-graders in some years have been held back, most for failing to make an adequate score on the reading test.