Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian marked the beginning of his sixth year in office Friday by rolling up his sleeves and collecting paper for a recyling project in a Taipei suburb, as opinion polls showed a significant slide in his popularity.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian marked the beginning of his sixth year in office Friday by rolling up his sleeves and collecting paper for a recyling project in a Taipei suburb, as opinion polls showed a significant slide in his popularity.
Chen first took office on May 20, 2000, ending more than five decades of Nationalist Party rule. Last year, he was narrowly re-elected to a second and final term.
As he has done on previous anniversaries, Chen marked the occasion by helping out as a volunteer. In the past he fed elderly patients at hospitals, washed cars and picked up litter along the street.
On Friday, he visited a recycling plant run by a Buddhist organization in a Taipei suburb.
Chen sat down in a warehouse with other volunteers, chatting and smiling as he rapidly ripped out pages from discarded files and threw them into boxes for recycling.
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Chen's apparently buoyant mood contrasted sharply with recent opinion polls, most of which have shown low public satisfaction with his achievements.
Friday's edition of the United Daily News -- a mass-circulation daily often critical of Chen -- said 47 percent of the poll respondents were dissatisfied with his performance, up from 37 percent a year ago, when Chen began his second term.
The paper said 38 percent of the poll respondents were satisfied with the president, down from 41 percent one year ago.
Inconsistency was the major reason for the public's dissatisfaction with Chen, the newspaper said. More than half the respondents -- 57 percent -- said Chen changed his views too often, while only 27 percent said the president sticks to his principles.
Detractors say Chen's attitude toward rival China varies too much between conciliation and criticism, and his hot-again-cold-again attitude toward opposition parties is confusing.
The dissatisfaction apparently stems from Chen's decision to first criticize, then grudgingly welcome recent visits to China by two opposition leaders, and his political embrace -- albeit temporary -- of one of them.
The United Daily News poll surveyed 854 people by telephone on May 19. It had a margin of error of 3.4 percent.
Source: Associated Press
