The “September Strife” of 2013 has come back to haunt former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has become the third former head of state to be indicted after leaving office.
The incident, which created deep rifts in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) became one of the best-known chapters in the history of Taiwan’s politics.
The controversy at the heart of the incident was how Ma handled confidential information obtained during an investigation into alleged improper lobbying by two of his political foes: Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The investigation into whether Wang had lobbied prosecutors not to appeal a not-guilty verdict Ker received in an embezzlement case was still under way when then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) gave Ma confidential information from a wiretap.
The animosity between Ma and Wang stemmed largely from the KMT’s 2005 chairmanship election that pitted then-Taipei mayor and KMT vice chairman Ma against Wang. Ma had been relentless in his attempts to paint Wang as a corrupt politician.
As president, Ma was also reportedly vexed by the cozy relationship between Wang, the nation’s longest-serving legislative speaker, and the pan-green camp.
This background explains why the normally cautious Ma told Huang to brief then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and then-Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) about the confidential information. Despite the seemingly justifiable reasons Ma has given for his contentious, if not illegal, way of handling the information, his primary motivation was apparently a personal vendetta.
That motivation is what Taipei prosecutors focused on when they laid out their indictment against Ma on Tuesday: that his “ideological differences with Wang and the speaker’s failure to push through the president’s policies” in the legislature caused Ma to ignore the principles of separation of powers, and checks and balances, because he wanted Wang stripped of the speakership and his KMT membership.
Ma has insisted that he is innocent of the charges, saying that had been trying to “manage a potential crisis situation.”
He said that his decision to keep Jiang in the loop was due to concerns that the investigation results could affect the relationship between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan, because one of the people Wang allegedly lobbied was then-minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫).
However, if that was really his motivation, Ma could have waited a few days until the probe was over before starting his “crisis management project.”
Ma, who was also serving as KMT chairman at the time, could have easily prevented his actions from being seen as a vendetta against Wang by not calling a news conference to urge Wang’s ouster from the party just one hour before the KMT’s Evaluation and Disciplinary Committee met on Sept. 11 to decide the speaker’s fate.
Regardless of the reasons Ma gave himself or the public to justify his handling of the incident, actions speak louder than words. His actions showed that he was so eager to see Wang fall from grace that he appears to have disregarded the law and due process.
The indictment will not be the first time that Ma appears in court as a defendant since leaving office; he made an appearance in November last year in a civil lawsuit filed against him by Ker for leaking secret information to Jiang and Lo in connection with the 2013 investigation of Ker and Wang. That case is still under way.
While it is unlikely that Ma could end up behind bars if convicted, as he would likely be given a sentence commutable to a fine, a guilty verdict might be punishment enough for someone who prides himself on his integrity and built a political career on it.
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