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EDITORIAL: Ma's colored leadership card

"Integrity is honesty in action" is an aphorism Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) -- who so often says he holds himself "to the highest moral standard" -- should take note of in the face of questions on whether he is or was a US green card holder.

When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) first raised the question on Sunday, Ma firmly said: "I don't have a green card."

After Hsieh claimed the next day that he knew Ma's green card number, Ma called an emergency press conference later that night and said he did obtain a green card in 1977 to facilitate his application for student loans and for employment purposes. Ma said that both his and his wife's green cards were invalidated in the mid-1980s when they applied for visas at the American Institute in Taiwan to travel to the US.

Whether Ma is still a holder of a valid green card as the Hsieh camp alleges remains to be seen, but that's beside the point.

What is relevant is how Ma responds to such enquiries and what kind of crisis management skills he has for issues of genuine importance.

When first confronted by Hsieh with the green card question, Ma resorted to a rhetorical game of half-truths.

Telling a half-truth -- and then admitting it -- suggests Ma can all too easily turn an easy yes-or-no question into a snowballing headache.

If Ma had simply said that he once possessed a green card, then the matter would have ended there.

The way Ma has been coping with potential crises lately elicits deja vu.

Back in late 2006, when Ma was faced with accusations of embezzling his special allowance fund during his stint as Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006, he said he was scrupulous in separating public funds from private interests.

It was only after he was indicted for embezzlement that he changed his statement, arguing that he understood the special allowance fund was a "substantial subsidy" that formed part of his official income.

Long a darling of the press, Ma has been able to maintain a clean-cut image through sophisticated image manipulation. As a result, it often seems like Hsieh is running against a pop idol rather than a presidential candidate.

As a democratic country, Taiwan no longer needs an idol to worship as it did under the KMT's authoritarian regime.

It is time to scrutinize Ma for the integrity and leadership skills needed to lead the country.

What Taiwan wants is a candidate with integrity to win the election on March 22 -- not celebrities who crack under precious little pressure.
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