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MA-WANG SHOWDOWN:
Netizens criticize Ma ‘persecution’ of Wang Jin-pyng
SKEWED PRIORITIES: The president was accused of
being more passionate about launching a political vendetta than dealing with
economic problems
By Chiu Yan-ling and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with staff
writer
Dozens of netizens vented their anger yesterday over what they said was
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “cold-blooded political persecution” of
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) through “illegal, unconstitutional and
inhumane” means, with some launching an online signature drive demanding the
president’s immediate resignation.
The initiator of the signature drive, who identified himself as a swing voter,
said that demanding Ma’s resignation was the “obligation and responsibility of
every Taiwanese who loves this country and has a good sense of judgement of what
is right and wrong, and of shame.”
“To take down his political enemies, Ma, despite being the head of state of this
country, has resorted to illegal, unconstitutional and inhumane tactics and
stepped beyond the mandate bestowed upon him by the Constitution by wiretapping
the legislative speaker [Wang] and the leader of the opposition party caucus
[Democratic Progressive Party caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘)],” the
petition read.
Not only has the president tried to justify his illegitimate conduct, he has
also used information obtained during the illegal wiretap operation to carry out
a political vendetta against Wang and used his subjective judgement to
unilaterally declare Wang guilty, the signature drive said.
“Ma’s behavior is the biggest disgrace to Taiwan’s democratic development and we
[the public] must ask him to step down before the nation sinks into an
indefinite period of darkness,” the petition said.
The petition had received backing from nearly 16,000 netizens as of press time.
Meanwhile, other Internet users also criticized Ma for reportedly saying that
Wang should be stripped of his Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) membership for
“tarnishing the party’s image and reputation” during a meeting of the KMT’s
15-member Disciplinary Committee held yesterday to discuss Wang’s fate.
The meeting reached a consensus to revoke Wang’s membership after deliberating
for two hours and 20 minutes.
Sources say Ma, who is KMT chairman, was choked with tears as he made a
10-minute speech at the committee meeting, in which he said he was “too saddened
by Wang’s involvement in illegal lobbying to be able to sleep.”
The legislative speaker is embroiled in an alleged influence-peddling case
involving several prominent political figures, including Ker and former minister
of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), who resigned on Friday last week over the
matter.
“It’s obvious that Ma has been trying to take down Wang since the very
beginning. He [Ma] is such a hypocrite,” one netizen wrote.
Another said maybe it was the overwhelming joy of finally being able to remove
Wang that had been keeping Ma up at night.
Some netizens also ridiculed the president for his unusually tough stance on the
incident, saying that it seemed as if he was only capable of and passionate
about launching political vendetta, instead of handling economic problems as he
is supposed to.
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