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EDITORIAL: Ma’s
swelling credibility gap
“How credible are President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) words?” is an oft-repeated
question these days, even among members of his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT),
after Ma reportedly set his sights on another term as party chairman.
Putting aside the legal debate surrounding the Civil Organization Act (人民團體法) on
whether he is even eligible to run again, Ma, from the perspective of political
accountability, would be well advised to review his past rhetoric and his
performance as party chairman before deciding whether a third term would be
beneficial to the party or his own political track record.
Among the responsibilities of a party leader is to be supportive of members’
electoral bids, by taking part in election rallies and street processions to
campaign for party nominees.
Ma has clearly failed in that aspect. In recent weeks, he has been conspicuous
by his absence from campaign events for KMT candidate Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆), who is
running in Saturday’s legislative by-election in Greater Taichung.
Media reports quoted party sources as saying the general opinion within the
KMT’s Taichung branch was that it should distance itself from Ma as much as
possible in this campaign, fearing his bottom-scrapping approval ratings would
hurt Yen’s chances.
Despite this shunning, the KMT’s Central Standing Committee yesterday passed a
provisional motion — with applause — to approve Ma’s eligibility to run for the
chairmanship a third time. If Ma does make another run at the job, the question
KMT members should ask themselves is: “Do we want a chairman who cannot campaign
for us?”
The latest survey by the ERA Survey Research Center suggested the approval
rating for Ma as president has slumped to 13.7 percent, far lower than his
arch-nemesis, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), ever dropped (18 percent).
While Ma may argue that survey results should be mere references, his
unprecedented low rating suggests that his rationale for doubling as head of the
state and the head of the governing party is no longer valid.
Ma said his decision to run for KMT chairman in 2009 was prompted by his sense
of responsibility for the government’s performance, and that it would be easier
for him to push policies and boost the government’s performance if he were also
KMT chairman. Three years hence and the Ma administration’s performance record
is anything but stellar.
Many people recall how Ma accused Chen when he was president of being
power-hungry by doubling as Democratic Progressive Party chairman. Even more
vivid is the recollection of Ma saying, after becoming president in May 2008,
that he would not serve as KMT chairman so that he could rise above partisanship
and be a “president of the people.” He was repeating a pledge he made on Oct. 3,
2007, when he said: “While the KMT has no regulation stipulating that the
president must double as the party chairman, under no circumstance will I ever
run for party chairman should I be elected president.”
Who serves as KMT chairman is the party’s own business. However, as Ma has
performed so poorly working two jobs at one time, he should reconsider his plans
to run for the party leadership post for a third time.
Abstaining would not only benefit the KMT, but would also help the nation and
Ma’s own credibility.
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