Ma Positioned for KMT Chairman

Reneging on his previous promises to not serve as both the president of Taiwan, as well as the chairman of the KMT, Ma apparently has no problem going back on his word. This is a great move on Ma's part as it puts him right in the middle of the CCP/KMT talks that are dangerous towards Taiwan democracy. There is hardly any oversight in what goes on in these party-to-party talks, and add to the fact that after agreements have been made, the LY in Taiwan does not even put them up for a vote, it just goes into affect by default.

One reason for this being a great move for Ma is that now he can totally skirt the issue of introducing himself as President Ma of Taiwan in front of Hu Jintao. Instead of coming up with stupid reasons such as, "it's a non-issue" or something of that sort, he can officially say he is meeting Hu Jintao as the chairman of the KMT party.

So now we have the actual president of Taiwan, likely to meet with the CCP, but serving as only the party head. What does that look like? CCP, KMT, meetings... party heads that are dual serving as state heads. It should remind you of the old CCP/KMT rivarly of the past under a unified China.

Going a little bit further into the article, what exactly does the following mean?

“I thought it would be unnecessary [to double as KMT chairman] when I took office last year, but I now believe that the party and the government should fully cooperate as we have faced various challenges over the past year,” Ma said.

He's saying that the party and government need to cooperate, as if they are one- so he becomes the leader of both to mitigate that problem. But what's not mentioned is, what about the other party? The DPP? But I guess Ma is right on one part, there are challenges between the party and the government appearing- just so happens it's because of Ma's move to become the KMT chairman:

KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) held a different view, expressing concern about the impact of Ma’s decision. Now the president would enjoy absolute power and no one would be able to influence his decisions, she said.

“He can do whatever he wants,” Lo said. “No one can control him anyway. He now becomes the most powerful person in Taiwan.”

Taiwanese should be worried when the KMT are even becoming antsy about their president, and soon to be, party chairman's, political moves. This is something that is refreshing to see, and more of this, on both sides, would be beneficial to Taiwan as a whole. That is, a move away from the traditional KMT and DPP party-line of, unification, and independence, respectively.

Finally, as this editorial in the Taipei Times today points out, Ma has repeatedly invoked in the past, Lord Acton's quote of: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

May I ask, President Ma, what exactly are you trying to achieve here- more power, dare I say?

Taiwanese need to have the ability to use referendums and initiatives because at this rate, Ma Ying Jeou will have already served up a platter of Chinese Taipei (ahem, Taiwan), to Hu Jintao, and more than half of Taiwan will be left on the sidelines, wondering how it happened.

Other tidbits:

• I've been delightfully surprised at the positive news coming out of the U.S. in terms of support for Taiwan lately. Today, reports on a push for F-16s, and a call on Obama to sign for the sale of them quickly.
• I'm still watching EWT, and it's continuing to behave in a way that says we should short EWT and go bear on the TAIEX. I may take a short position on EWT by end of week if the diagonal line contains the upside of EWT (as mentioned in the previous post here).
• I recently added other Taiwan blogs that should be of interest if you are interested in reading more about Taiwan politics and news. Of notice is today's post on Taiwan Matters! highlighting Jerome Keating's recent article on why Taiwan is Taiwan, and China is China. The actual article by Keating is here, titled "The civil war that was never ours." I strongly recommend reading this, as it is short, succint, and to the point. And, it should also open your eyes up to how wrong media can be, and how far-reaching CCP propaganda can go.