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Taiwanese have ended the year with a vote of no confidence in their government and local businesses.
Poll results recently released by several media outlets - including the United Daily News, the highly popular community bulletin board PTT Gossiping, and the PNN news forum - all indicate Taiwanese people have found 2013 a miserable year.
While the United Daily News said people taking part in its poll picked "fake" as the word of the year, PTT's results showed their voters chose "Alas, three more years to go".
PNN highlighted the phrase "ghost island", meaning a place not worthy to live in.
All these words, full of negative connotations, chosen to represent Taiwan this year do not come as a surprise to the general public, troubled by a poor economy, a spate of food safety scandals and political and environmental controversies.
From unscrupulous companies supplying chemically tainted starch to food manufacturers, which sent a chill through the island in May, to a military serviceman dying of heatstroke following excessive exercises he was forced to carry out as a punishment in July, Taiwan has been hit by a string of scandals this year.
In August, the popular television talk show hostess Dee Hsu, better known as Little S, had to apologise after a popular bakery chain she had endorsed was accused of using artificial flavouring in bread it claimed only contained "all-natural ingredients".
A month later, President Ma Ying-jeou rocked the island by accusing his long-time rival, the legislature speaker Wang Jin-pyng, of illegal lobbying for an opposition lawmaker.
Ma insisted that Wang must be punished by losing his job in the legislature.
The incident triggered a political storm for two months until Ma softened his stance by making peace with the speaker.
Wang, although found by some locals to be morally in the wrong, was not considered to have broken the law.
The incident gave the opposition Democratic Progressive Party an opportunity to attack the Ma government and prevent Premier Jiang Yi-huah from delivering his administrative policy address to the legislature for almost a month.
Although it ended in failure, a DPP attempt to cast a vote of no confidence against Jiang's cabinet also hindered the smooth running of the government on the island.
Aside from several local manufacturers who were caught selling rice mixed with low-grade varieties of the crop from Vietnam, there were also reports in October of adulterated olive oil being sold for years by a well-known cooking oil supplier.
This discovery led to several other suppliers being caught for the same offence.
More recently, to the further surprise of the Taiwanese public, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, the world's largest integrated circuit packaging and testing provider, was fined repeatedly for discharging untreated wastewater into a river used for irrigation.
Although its chairman, Jason Chang, apologised on Monday, the fact that even a world-class company was guilty of such wrongdoing shows there is a pressing need on the part of the government to keep unscrupulous businesses in check if it is to win back the public's trust.
While the word "fake" represents public unease and distrust of both the government and some food businesses over the past 12 months, PNN's "ghost island" highlights a deep-seated disappointment in the performance of the government this year.
PTT's "Alas, three more years to go" vividly shows the concerns of the public for the remainder of President Ma's term in office that will end in May 2016.
That is also reflected in PTT's word of the year for 2014 - "miserable''.
To regain public trust next year and rebuild a happy and contented society, the government must work harder to weed out all that is fake in Taiwan.
lawrence.chung@scmp.com


For Taiwan, 2013 was a miserable year of fakes

News

China

Government needs to restore public faith after series of scandals on island


Taiwanese have ended the year with a vote of no confidence in their government and local businesses. Poll results recently released by several media outlets - including the United Daily News, the highly popular community bulletin board PTT Gossiping, and the PNN news forum - all indicate Taiwanese people have found 2013 a miserable year.


For Taiwan, 2013 was a miserable year of fakes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Government needs to restore public faith after series of scandals on island

Government needs to restore public faith after series of scandals on island