Taipei County Commissioner Su Tseng-chang (
The two rival political camps' national campaign managers both enjoy massive popularity among voters. Even before campaigning for the presidential election started, the two heavyweights had been exchanging verbal blows in the media about disputed construction issues between Taipei City and Taipei County.
With the presidential campaign heating up, Su and Ma have been getting a lot of attention from the media, as well as the public.
The question of how much say each has in influencing the strategy of their own camp was a central issue when they faced each other yesterday.
Su, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said that the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Ma was exhibiting a lack of clout as the pan-blue camp's national campaign manager, and that he was happy with the camp's "inconsistent remarks."
"Although Ma claimed that the pan-blue camp has fully authorized its negotiators to discuss the details of the debate last week and this week, the fact is that Ma still needed to call the so-called high-ranking officials to get clearance for the number of people that would attend today's negotiations," Su said at a news conference following yesterday's negotiations.
It proved that the KMT is continuing with its tendency of saying one thing and doing another and revealed its insincerity toward the debates, he said.
Su's remarks echoed his previous comments about Ma, whom he criticized for being a "counterfeit" when the Taipei mayor announced that he would accept the position as pan-blue national campaign manager.
Ma had originally declined to accepted this position in November last year when he was approached by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and pan-blue presidential campaign director Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Ma has been called the only person whose popularity could rival that of President Chen Shui-bian (
The pan-blue camp considers him a powerful means of magnetizing people's support to add momentum to the presidential campaign of Lien and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Lien has said that Ma was "the one and only candidate for the pan-blue camp's national campaign manager" and "would add infinite scores [of supporters] to the pan-blue camp."
To demonstrate Ma's great popularity, the pan-blue camp has even auctioned off an opportunity to spend an afternoon with Ma in order to attract younger voters.
At yesterday's meeting, however, Ma seemed to be out of tune with his campaign colleagues, giving rise to a cacophony in the pan-blue camp.
Ma tried to talk about the referendum while his comrades were more concerned with economic issues.
Ma revealed his lack of clout when he defended his absence from the last Sunday's negotiations by saying that he had not been appointed as "a negotiator from beginning to end."
Compared with Su, who pledged to help the DPP to get 50 percent of the votes in the presidential election, Ma seemed to have vague goals.
He said that he would "go all out" to canvass votes for the joint Lien-Soong presidential ticket.
In January, Su visited Tai-wanese living in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas and New York in the US to canvass votes and raise funds for the Chen campaign.
Although Ma never stopped shaking hands with screaming supporters in an array of campaign activities around the country, his contribution to the pan-blue campaign seems to be playing a tragic hero resisting the referendum on the frontline, defusing the criticism of Cabinet officials.
The pan-blue camp seems to believe that the pan-greens would only hurt themselves if they continued to lash out at Ma, who enjoys great popularity among neutral voters, according to Taipei City Government spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇).
"No one can gain extra points by attacking Mayor Ma. Those who want to promote their own fame in this way would only hurt themselves," Wu said.
But with Ma's continuing assault against the referendum, Su has recently started stepping up his attacks on Ma.
When Ma accused Chen's proposed referendum as "flagrant crime," Su hit back by saying that Ma was a "repeat offender" who opposed direct democracy but who had enjoyed its results over the past decade.
Compared with the 54-year-old Ma, who has been appointed by the KMT to many different government offices, such as chairman of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, minister of justice and spokesman of the Council for Cultural Affairs and at the Mainland Affairs Council (
After earning a bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University's Law School, Su, 57, worked as a lawyer in Taipei for 10 years before he was elected to the Taiwan Provincial Assembly in 1981 and 1985.
Like Chen, Su was one of the defense attorneys after the Kaohsiung Incident (
He completed a term as a legislator in Taipei County and was elected Taipei County commissioner in 1997.
Su's trademarks -- his bald head, hoarse voice and witty eloquence -- are in stark contrast to those of Ma. Su is also one of the few members of the pan-green camp that can rival Ma's high popularity.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that Ma has cleverly employed his image as an erudite, civil and gentle intellectual, as well as using his proficiency in dealing with the media, to win the support of neutral voters.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (
Chin Heng-wei (
As for Su, Chin said, if Chen wins the presidential election, Su might be appointed premier.
But Chin pointed out that it was too early to predict Su's and Ma's future political career, because there are still many uncertain variables in Taiwan's politics.
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