The "Ma Ying-jeou (
If one were to accept everything portrayed in the news coverage without taking a break to reflect, it would seem that Ma was ready to be proclaimed Lord of the pan-blues and lead the KMT back to the Presidential Office, leaving the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) shuddering with fear in his shadow before the 2008 presidential campaign even starts.
What exactly is the "Ma Ying-jeou phenomenon?"
It is nothing more than the media's selective representation and magnification of Ma, elevated by his visit to the US, into a myth, and the migration of the country's political scene into the realm of the entertainment sector.
A simple glance at Ma's press conference in Los Angeles shows how the "Ma Ying-jeou phenomenon" has come about.
Groups of reporters swarmed around Ma to get his signature, looking more like members of a fan club than professional journalists on assignment.
When reporters become fans of their subject, how can they apply the necessary skills of judgment, critique and reasoning to their coverage?
Behaving unprofessionally is one thing, but acting like groupies oversteps the limit. Yet this was the case when a group of Taiwanese reporters surrounded Ma and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The news clip showed giggling reporters flanking the pair. One reporter thought that the question Taiwanese TV viewers really wanted Newsom to answer was: "Do you think Ma Ying-jeou is handsome?" Did the TV stations really send reporters all the way to the US just to ask such a stupid question?
If only they could look beyond the glossy news coverage and scrutinize the underlying issues.
For instance, Ma's proposal to seek an interim peace accord with China to "formally terminate the state of hostility across the Taiwan Strait and enable the two sides to interact with each other in peace" for 30 to 50 years is old hat. It has been brought up by US officials and academics before and was rejected by the Clinton administration.
But let's hypothesize for a moment that events do favor Ma's approach. What will happen after 30 or 50 years? Will China then declare war on Taiwan? Signing this kind of an agreement is tantamount to signing a death certificate on Taiwan's efforts to become a normal country and abandoning the movement to build Taiwanese consciousness.
There is cause for deep concern about Taiwan's future if the public continues to allow a politician such as Ma to speak on its behalf in the international arena, pampered and unscrutinized by the media.
As far as the "Ma Ying-jeou phenomenon" is concerned, Premier Su Tseng-chang (
The DPP should remain steady on its own path rather than allow itself to be distracted or provoked by the pro-China media's schoolgirl crush on the KMT's leader.
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