I was interested to hear about the Taipei Mayor’s response to The Diplomat’s recent article...
Why Taiwan Is Beating COVID-19 – Again.
The article outlined how well the government had been doing during the entirety of the pandemic and how well it had coped with the latest outbreak via its pragmatic approach, trust in the wider population, and the sensitive imposition of the more restrictive policies it was forced to implement. As a resident, it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know already, but that is beside the point.
But it did contain a well deserved swipe at the Taipei Mayor, which, again speaking as a resident, I could not help but be in total agreement with.
The Diplomat article said “In today’s context, the mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je, has been chastised by media personalities, politicians, and voters for his relatively poor performance in fighting the outbreak. They criticized Ko for not taking contact tracing and testing seriously enough to contain localized outbreaks at markets, for failing to establish a proper vaccine distribution system, and pushing the blame for the persistent community transmission on the ground to anyone but himself. Elected as a populist, the physician-turned-mayor saw his approval numbers for pandemic control falling almost 7 percentage points from June to July 2021, the most significant fall among all mayors. Ongoing criticism has spurred Ko to accept the help of medical experts from the CDC (Government) reluctantly. They have sought to improve anti-pandemic efforts on the ground with the assistance of the vice mayor of Taipei.”
All of which is clearly accurate.
I was heartened to see that journalists tackled him on this yesterday to which he pathetically replied...“You cannot just randomly take some magazine and ask me about it.” adding that “very often, if you read them, these articles are just rubbish.”
Remembering, of course, that The Diplomat is a widely read and well respected global publication of some 20 years standing on the international stage. Any smart politician would know they are on dangerous ground in dismissing such a publication as just “rubbish” and refuse to give a more fulsome answer.
To my mind that speaks to a number of points.
1) It was a panic response as what the article said was true, he was unable to contradict it, or come up with a meaningful explanation.
2) His innate narcissism means he dismisses all and any criticism as not worthy of someone his imagination tells him is as exalted as he is.
3) He has zero respect for the views of others, no matter who airs them.
4) His office is unaware of what is being said in the media about the party or its leader and as such is really not being serious about what they are doing.
5) He is really not very bright.
By trying to dismiss this kind of article as "rubbish" and hoping it will just go away demonstrates an inability to cope.
Tinkerty Tonk…
Please read The Diplomat article if you have not already done so.
《關於外交家雜誌》
最近《外交家》雜誌上有一篇關於台灣防疫的文章，台北市長的回應引起我的興趣。
標題是：為什麼台灣能夠再度擊敗 Covid19。
https://thediplomat.com/2021/07/why-taiwan-is-beating-covid-19-again/
這篇文章概述了台灣政府在疫情期間的表現，以及如何透過務實的方法和民眾廣泛的信任，在高風險區實施嚴格的政策應對最新爆發的疫情。
我是在這期間身處台灣的居民，這篇文章其實沒有告訴我任何我不知道的事情，但這無關緊要。該文也包含了對台北市長的評論，此時作為居民的我忍不住完全同意，並且認為他當之無愧。
《外交家》雜誌指出：台北市長柯文哲遭到媒體名嘴、政治人物和選民批評防疫不當，外界抨擊柯文哲接觸史追蹤及檢疫措施不夠嚴謹，導致傳統市場爆發疫情、沒有建立適當的疫苗分配系統，以及卸責並認為疫情失控都不是自己的錯。當選為民粹主義者後，這位醫生出身的市長，在疫情中的支持率從 2021年 6 月到 7 月就下降了將近 7 個百分點，在所有縣市長中降幅最大。柯文哲在飽受批評下，終於讓步接受中央疫情指揮中心協助，並在副市長協助下改善防疫工作。(翻譯段落取自中央社，特此感謝)
這些顯然是準確的。
我很高興看到昨天有記者拿這件事來挑戰他，他很可悲地回應記者「隨便拿一本外國雜誌問我要回應」，接著還補充說讀一讀這些報導，現他們「亂寫一通」。
請記住，《外交家》The Diplomat 總部設於華盛頓，是有約 20 年歷史，廣大的讀者而且備受推崇的國際性媒體。 任何聰明的政治人物都知道將這樣的媒體視為「亂寫一通」，並拒絕給出更全面的回應是危險的。
在我看來，這說明了幾點。
1) 這是一種恐慌的反應，因為文章所說的是真的，他無法反駁，也無法提出有意義的解釋。
2) 他與生俱來的自戀，意味著他拒絕任何批評，因為這些批評無法匹配在他想像中那個崇高的自我。
3）他對他人意見的尊重是零，不管評論的人是誰。
4) 他辦公室的幕僚沒有察覺到媒體對該黨或領導人的評論，顯示他們滿不在乎。
5) 他真的不是很聰明。
試圖將此類文章視為「亂寫一通」，並希望它會就這樣消失，只說明了一個情形，就是他無法應對。
Tinkerty Tonk… 掰掰。
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