Why I Despise Ma Ying-Jeou
Hi,
This one has been a long time coming.
For those who don't know, Ma Ying-Jeou is a former justice minister of the Taiwanese government, former mayor of Taipei City, former chairman of the Kuomintang Party (KMT) and current KMT candidate for president in the March 2008 election, which he is expected to win. He is also a spineless hypocrite.
Ma Ying-Jeou is famous throughout Taiwan for two things: his strong moral character and looking good in jogging shorts. I have little desire to comment on the fact that he looks good in jogging shorts but I have quite a few things to say about his strong moral character.
The KMT has a much deserved reputation for relying on bribery and intimidation to win elections but that changed when it lost the 2000 presidential election. When James Soong, its most popular member, saw the candidacy for the 2000 election go to perpetual loser and rumored wife-beater Lien Chan, he ran as an independent, thus dividing the pro-KMT vote and enabling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-Bian to become the first non-KMT president and only the second democraticaly elected one. It is pretty hard to bribe voters when you don't control the Justice Ministry, so in an effort to change its image the KMT introduced a "black gold exclusion clause", which states that any KMT member indicted for a criminal offense will have his/her membership suspended. The move to strengthen the regulation was spearheaded by none other than Taiwan's poster boy for strong moral character-Ma Ying-Jeou.
This fact is worth remembering since on February 13, 2007, Ma Ying-Jeou himself was indicted for embezzling approximately NT$ 11 million (US$ 339,000) when he was Taipei mayor. To be fair, the legality of the charge is debatable because he is actually charged with misusing his "special allowances" fund but there is no regulation that states clearly how the fund is to be used. According to other municipal officials, the fund was meant to supplement officials' salaries or at least subsize officials' public expenses, and several DPP legislators who have been mayors of other cities have expressed amazement at the charge.
While it is tue that it may have been a gray zone, legally speaking, several other points are much more clear. First, Ma Ying-Jeou's famed generosity to charities suddenly seems a little less generous. Second, Ma has been unable to explain why he has so much money left in his bank account (his wife's account to be specific) seven months after he left office. Third, when he was indicted he immediately threw a hissy fit/press conference where he stated that democracy has been mortally wounded but he will persevere and run as an independent if necessary. He immediately resigned as chairman of the KMT, and to no one's surprise, the KMT executive committe quickly voted to eliminate the offending regulation since it must be wrong if it prevented Ma Ying-Jeou from leading the KMT back to the Presidential office. In fact, the executive committee seems to think that there are no other potential candidates since a couple of months later it voted to remove the regulation forbidding any candidate convicted of a criminal offense from running for office just in case he was convicted. That's thinking ahead. However, that is not why I despise Ma Ying-Jeou, it merely deepens my contempt. No, I despise him because he was an effective justice minister from 1993 to 1996. In fact, he was so effective at arresting gangsters that he was promoted to minister without portfolio in 1996 before resigning in tears later that year. You see, the KMT never learned how to win votes, instead it simply made deals with gangsters to bring in the vote, but if the gangsters were in jail, then who would supply the votes? If the KMT fell from power, KMT legislators would no longer be able to call the finance ministry to ensure that their family bank received favorable treatment or that their brother's construction company was given the contract to build public schools, so Ma obviously had to go. When the DPP made substantial gains in the 1997 legislative elections, it became a serious threat to KMT dominance, so drastic measures were required. Shortly before the election for county magistrates the following year, 100 gangsters were released from prison for medical reasons, and the KMT swept the elections. The star of these invalids was Lo Fu-Chu, the spiritual head of the Celestial Way, one of the most powerful triads in Taiwan. He clearly benefited from his rest since it took three male legislators to hold him back when he expressed an intense interest in discussing a matter with another legislator.
How did Ma Ying-Jeou react to his party releasing 100 people he had helped put in jail? He agreed to run as the KMT's candidate for Taipei mayor against then-mayor Chen Shui-Bian, who promptly lost despite a 70% approval rating. During Chen's single term as mayor, the MRT (subway/metro/underground) had expanded from one line to four lines, illegal brothels and gambling dens were driven out of the city and he improved the residential water supply. Ma served two terms and did not really seem to do anything other than look upright and determined. No, wait, he did order the police to confiscate any Taiwanese flags waved by members of the audience during a cross-strait football match against China.
This brings me to my next point. Ma Ying-Jeou has repeatedly spoken against Taiwanese independence and he was against democratic elections for president. Admittedly, he did criticize China's Anti-Seccession Law, which says that China has the right to use force to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence, but as chairman of the KMT he failed to persuade the party's legislators to vote for the budget to purchase desperately needed advanced weapons from the US.
Finally, Ma Ying-Jeou has repeatedly been accused of spying on other Taiwanese students when he was a student at Harvard University. This is not a matter of being nosy. Taiwan was under martial law at the time and if students were discovered agitating for democracy they would not be granted a visa to return home. There is no proof that he was spying but he definitely was not one of the students pressing for democracy, which brings me to my key point. At no point in time has Ma Ying-Jeou expressed remorse for the KMT dictatorship, the thousands of deaths during the White Terror or the repression and jail sentences for pro-deomcracy advocates. In fact, he has never said that he thinks the democratization of Taiwan is a good thing, which does not make me believe that he would expend much effort to defend Taiwan's democracy against China if and when he becomes president. And that is why I despise Ma Ying-Jeou.
This one has been a long time coming.
For those who don't know, Ma Ying-Jeou is a former justice minister of the Taiwanese government, former mayor of Taipei City, former chairman of the Kuomintang Party (KMT) and current KMT candidate for president in the March 2008 election, which he is expected to win. He is also a spineless hypocrite.
Ma Ying-Jeou is famous throughout Taiwan for two things: his strong moral character and looking good in jogging shorts. I have little desire to comment on the fact that he looks good in jogging shorts but I have quite a few things to say about his strong moral character.
The KMT has a much deserved reputation for relying on bribery and intimidation to win elections but that changed when it lost the 2000 presidential election. When James Soong, its most popular member, saw the candidacy for the 2000 election go to perpetual loser and rumored wife-beater Lien Chan, he ran as an independent, thus dividing the pro-KMT vote and enabling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-Bian to become the first non-KMT president and only the second democraticaly elected one. It is pretty hard to bribe voters when you don't control the Justice Ministry, so in an effort to change its image the KMT introduced a "black gold exclusion clause", which states that any KMT member indicted for a criminal offense will have his/her membership suspended. The move to strengthen the regulation was spearheaded by none other than Taiwan's poster boy for strong moral character-Ma Ying-Jeou.
This fact is worth remembering since on February 13, 2007, Ma Ying-Jeou himself was indicted for embezzling approximately NT$ 11 million (US$ 339,000) when he was Taipei mayor. To be fair, the legality of the charge is debatable because he is actually charged with misusing his "special allowances" fund but there is no regulation that states clearly how the fund is to be used. According to other municipal officials, the fund was meant to supplement officials' salaries or at least subsize officials' public expenses, and several DPP legislators who have been mayors of other cities have expressed amazement at the charge.
While it is tue that it may have been a gray zone, legally speaking, several other points are much more clear. First, Ma Ying-Jeou's famed generosity to charities suddenly seems a little less generous. Second, Ma has been unable to explain why he has so much money left in his bank account (his wife's account to be specific) seven months after he left office. Third, when he was indicted he immediately threw a hissy fit/press conference where he stated that democracy has been mortally wounded but he will persevere and run as an independent if necessary. He immediately resigned as chairman of the KMT, and to no one's surprise, the KMT executive committe quickly voted to eliminate the offending regulation since it must be wrong if it prevented Ma Ying-Jeou from leading the KMT back to the Presidential office. In fact, the executive committee seems to think that there are no other potential candidates since a couple of months later it voted to remove the regulation forbidding any candidate convicted of a criminal offense from running for office just in case he was convicted. That's thinking ahead. However, that is not why I despise Ma Ying-Jeou, it merely deepens my contempt. No, I despise him because he was an effective justice minister from 1993 to 1996. In fact, he was so effective at arresting gangsters that he was promoted to minister without portfolio in 1996 before resigning in tears later that year. You see, the KMT never learned how to win votes, instead it simply made deals with gangsters to bring in the vote, but if the gangsters were in jail, then who would supply the votes? If the KMT fell from power, KMT legislators would no longer be able to call the finance ministry to ensure that their family bank received favorable treatment or that their brother's construction company was given the contract to build public schools, so Ma obviously had to go. When the DPP made substantial gains in the 1997 legislative elections, it became a serious threat to KMT dominance, so drastic measures were required. Shortly before the election for county magistrates the following year, 100 gangsters were released from prison for medical reasons, and the KMT swept the elections. The star of these invalids was Lo Fu-Chu, the spiritual head of the Celestial Way, one of the most powerful triads in Taiwan. He clearly benefited from his rest since it took three male legislators to hold him back when he expressed an intense interest in discussing a matter with another legislator.
How did Ma Ying-Jeou react to his party releasing 100 people he had helped put in jail? He agreed to run as the KMT's candidate for Taipei mayor against then-mayor Chen Shui-Bian, who promptly lost despite a 70% approval rating. During Chen's single term as mayor, the MRT (subway/metro/underground) had expanded from one line to four lines, illegal brothels and gambling dens were driven out of the city and he improved the residential water supply. Ma served two terms and did not really seem to do anything other than look upright and determined. No, wait, he did order the police to confiscate any Taiwanese flags waved by members of the audience during a cross-strait football match against China.
This brings me to my next point. Ma Ying-Jeou has repeatedly spoken against Taiwanese independence and he was against democratic elections for president. Admittedly, he did criticize China's Anti-Seccession Law, which says that China has the right to use force to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence, but as chairman of the KMT he failed to persuade the party's legislators to vote for the budget to purchase desperately needed advanced weapons from the US.
Finally, Ma Ying-Jeou has repeatedly been accused of spying on other Taiwanese students when he was a student at Harvard University. This is not a matter of being nosy. Taiwan was under martial law at the time and if students were discovered agitating for democracy they would not be granted a visa to return home. There is no proof that he was spying but he definitely was not one of the students pressing for democracy, which brings me to my key point. At no point in time has Ma Ying-Jeou expressed remorse for the KMT dictatorship, the thousands of deaths during the White Terror or the repression and jail sentences for pro-deomcracy advocates. In fact, he has never said that he thinks the democratization of Taiwan is a good thing, which does not make me believe that he would expend much effort to defend Taiwan's democracy against China if and when he becomes president. And that is why I despise Ma Ying-Jeou.
posted by History on Film at 1:29 AM
2 Comments:
defending Taiwan democracy against China would be a "good fight" -- something possibly only known in the west - - and it's unlikely that one percent of Taiwan's twenty-three million would have the stomach for a good fight against an agressive China - Ma is only a mirror of this lack of conviction
Very impressive. IMHO, it's worthy of appearing in the commentary section of the NY Times, Washington Post, The Economist, etc.
-C.
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