Typhoon Morakot: Why won't President Ma resign?

In a recent frequently reported CNN interview, Taiwan's President Ma gave yet another disturbing excuse for his apathy in responding to the typhoon disaster. First he again pushed the blame on others who he promised he would punish, while a poll by CNN has shown that 73% of Taiwanese feel it is Mr. Ma who should resign. Secondly, he explained that the rescue efforts were hampered by the poor weather conditions until Friday, August 14th - almost a week later?

Having witnessed the weather over the past week, I can only view this as yet another lie to add to the long list of Ma's Lies. Living in Kaohsiung City, we were delighted with sunshine on Thursday, but also could not complain about the weather on Wednesday. Most of Tuesday was also quite enjoyable until rain fell in the evening. Even with days of heavy rain right after the typhoon smashed into the south of Taiwan, local volunteers and rescue teams were fighting the rain and floods to save people, risking their own lives. What was the central government doing then? Refusing foreign aid? Refusing to call a state of emergency?

Despite the arrival of the typhoon, my wife, who is a doctor, went to her clinics on Sunday morning to find almost all of her patients there. Even her patient from Cishan managed to bring his child to her clinic while the typhoon was still uprooting trees despite using the longest way there. Her patients are all from Kaohsiung and Pingtung county, and many live in the mountain areas. On Wednesday only five of her patients rung her up to let her know they would not make it to her clinics because of the floods. If those people could make it, then what excuse does the government have for delaying the rescue efforts until the weather became sunny supposedly only just on Friday?

The central government in Taipei should also be reminded that Taipei was not affected by the typhoon at the weekend the typhoon gave the south a nasty surprise. On TV they showed an old woman in a beautiful park in Taipei exercising under the sun with a jovial smile. Even my wife's two sisters were enjoying a nice day of shopping at the Sogo department store. So how Ma claims that the weather was holding them back? What kind of weather do they need in Taipei to set up top level and central committee meetings to discuss the typhoon disaster rescue plan as former President Lee Teng Hui did on 921?

On the same day the weather report on TV was showing dramatic weather moving towards the south of Taiwan. That's when we knew that we were going to be hit the hardest, as the radar was showing the worst of the weather coming in our direction. Did Mr. Ma not notice this? Does he watch the news? Does he even need to as commander-in-chief? Even CNN claimed a super-typhoon was about to pummel Taiwan. There was no sign of any government effort that weekend. It seemed that even Mr. Ma was in hiding.

What was he doing hiding from a typhoon in sunny and dry Taipei?