Taiwan president seeks to save reputation after storm

CISHAN, Taiwan (Reuters) – Fatigued and disheveled, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou sat down at a tense town hall meeting this week to face his biggest political challenge yet: easing anti-government rage after a deadly typhoon.

The president, traveling feverishly through the disaster area to rebuild his reputation, squared off against more than 100 mountain dwellers upset that no one stopped the loss of lives, homes and business due to Typhoon Morakot on August 7-9.

"We didn't do things ideally at first," Ma told the meeting

at a temporary shelter for survivors. "Now we are planning the works, from resettlement and jobs to schooling."

His government, pressed by local opposition leaders, has risked its centerpiece achievement of a detente with political rival China by agreeing to let the popular Dalai Lama visit Taiwan next week to comfort victims.

Beijing reviles the Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. Since taking office in 2008, Ma has sought peace with China.

Ma went to Cishan, a hub city for rescue work, to convince people in the area he was serious about victim resettlement and reconstruction, which if done smoothly could ease earlier criticism ahead of city and county elections in December.

REPUTATION TIED TO RECONSTRUCTION

"If reconstruction works out well, he might recover his reputation, as Taiwan people forget quickly," said Shane Lee, a political science professor at Chang Jung University in Taiwan.

Ma is vying for favor in a region that traditionally votes against his Nationalist Party (KMT). Local aboriginal groups loyal to the KMT were among the hardest hit by the typhoon.

Many in the six-county disaster zone say the government reacted too slowly or with too little concern as the worst storm in 50 years left destruction across southern Taiwan, killing probably more than 650 people in landslides.

It's too early to tell whether Ma will regain popularity during his four-year term, but his effort to win favor in the disaster zone is shaping up as a long slog.

"We still have relatives in the mud who haven't been dug out," said Savi Huang, 31, a housewife from a partly buried village that was found late. "The government's whole outlook is slow. They don't think we're people."

Merchants who have lost income and property to floodwaters that reached the second storeys of some commercial blocks in Cishan want higher levees and earlier flood warnings.

"We'd protest the government now, but we're too busy cleaning up, so we should protest later," said 22-year tea seller Lin Chieh-cheng, 50, whose shop lost about T$1 million ($30,300) in property damage. "It will just flood here next year, too.

"To some extent, this flood will have an effect on elections," said Lin, pointing to water stains on his walls.

WAITING FOR ACTION

Other victims are more moderate, waiting for action before deciding what to make of Ma. Some say they would vote for him if the government helped them get on with their lives.

"There are some people who won't totally blame (Ma) for the disaster," said Yu Chien-kuo, 42, who fears he lost his house and who has been asked to leave the Cishan shelter by Monday. "It's best if he can start rebuilding now, the quicker the better."

Survivors, some of whose relatives were among the 653 dead or missing, want the government to pay for new housing, keep displaced inhabitants from mud-buried villages together and consult them ahead of major decisions.

Some greeted Ma with angry shouts and banners.

Ma told them the government would fund temporary housing, which will start from next month on military bases and shift to mobile homes. He pledged a new mudslide warning system and land to build new schools for displaced children.

"Victims want us to rebuild and speed is important," said Liu Chin-tien, a KMT party official from the worst-hit county. "It's been pretty fast so far, so people are OK with it."

Taiwan's parliament has approved a special reconstruction budget of up to T$120 billion.

But Ma, who listened more than he talked at the town hall meeting, lacks the charisma to regain popularity, analysts say.

"He's not a strong leader type of person," said George Tsai, a political science professor at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei. "But maybe he can learn."

(Editing by Ken Wills and Jerry Norton)

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