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Where do Ma’s loyalties lie?
Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010, Page 8
It wasn’t difficult to find out how President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) spent his Lunar
New Year holiday. Anyone who browsed news channels over the nine days could
easily find Ma criss-crossing the nation, either busily campaigning for Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates for Saturday’s legislative by-elections or
giving away red envelopes containing chocolate gold coins to temple visitors —
often with KMT candidates standing close by.
It was festive and appropriate seeing the president spread holiday cheer and
send out New Year greetings, but it is disturbing to see him perform his public
duty with obvious partisan colors, blurring his roles as president and KMT
chairman.
As head of state, where Ma goes and what he does publicly is closely watched by
the media. With that in mind, and in view of a slew of gloomy news ahead of and
during the holidays, one can’t help but wonder if Ma couldn’t have better spent
his time and energy on causes more worthy of public attention rather than
concentrating on partisan interests.
According to research conducted by the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families,
last year’s economic downturn and the disaster triggered by Typhoon Morakot
resulted in an increase in the number of under-privileged families.
Shortly before the Lunar New Year holiday, the non-profit children’s welfare
organization estimated that about 50,000 children across the country were likely
to spend their holidays with empty stomachs as a result of severe poverty.
The latest information released by the Ministry of the Interior also showed that
the number of households below the poverty line has climbed to a record 105,000.
That the figure has exceeded 100,000 households for two consecutive quarters
suggests a growing gap between the nation’s rich and poor.
Meanwhile, media also reported another grim figure: Between Feb. 13 — Lunar New
Year’s Eve — and last Friday, nine help centers in Taipei County received more
than 1,000 calls on their suicide hotlines.
If Ma were to visit children from under-privileged families or the help centers,
for example, wouldn’t that be more beneficial in drumming up media coverage of
pressing issues than campaigning?
No one ever said being head of a state while doubling as a party chairman was
easy. In the past, the KMT — including Ma — often accused then-president Chen
Shui-bian (陳水扁) of blurring the lines between the two roles. After making the
same decision, Ma should be all the more careful in drawing a clear distinction
between president and chairman in his public appearances if he has any intention
of honoring his pledge to be a “people’s president” (全民總統).
On Monday, Ma said he didn’t deserve to be a president if he failed to actualize
the goal of signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with
China, which he touts as the best way to create economic opportunities for
Taiwanese.
Ma would certainly not deserve to be president if — as suggested by his public
conduct and rhetoric over the holidays — he cares more about partisan interests
than people’s well-being.
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