A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of lying about his birthplace, saying Ma was born in Shenzhen, China, and not Hong Kong as Ma has said.
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) told a press conference that Ma had a “trust issue” because he had lied about his birthplace.
Chai said that between 1981 and 1982, Ma signed three documents that proved he was not born in Hong Kong. Ma wrote in his first unpublished autobiography and on the birth certificate of his daughter Lesley Ma (馬唯中) that he was born in Shenzhen. In a second autobiography, Ma wrote Guangdong Province as his birthplace. Shenzhen is in Guangdong Province.
Showing copies of the three manuscripts at a press conference yesterday, Chai told reporters that Ma's signatures on the three documents were identical, hence the documents were authentic.
However, “when Ma started to run for public office, he told the public he was born in Hong Kong,” Chai said. “Ma was not honest at all.”
Chai said he had raised the issue last month in a press conference, asking Ma and the Presidential Office to clear the matter.
However, Ma has chosen to avoid the issue, he said.
“Honesty is very important for a head of state, and it is sad that Taiwan has a president who is not honest,” he said.
When reached by the Taipei Times for response yesterday, Presidential Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that the office had already shown a copy of Ma's birth certificate proving he was born in Hong Kong.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
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