The most significant outcome of last Saturday’s elections was the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regaining power in its former stronghold of Yilan County.
Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), as both president of Taiwan and chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), had zealously and extensively campaigned there to prevent this, putting both his and his party’s reputation on the line.
Despite this, the people of Yilan voted in the DPP candidate. Whether this can be interpreted as evidence of growing public distrust in their president is one matter.
But there is another issue that needs to be raised: the significance of Ma breaking the law during the campaign.
Article 53 of the Election and Recall Act (選舉罷免法) forbids any discussion, mention or citing of public opinion polls 10 days before an election by officials or the media. Ma broke this law when he quoted an opinion poll within the restricted period.
Using this poll, he said that the race in Yilan was tight and that KMT members should work harder to win. Was Ma trying to speak to an audience other than KMT voters?
Ma’s public relations team and even foreign media outlets like to tout him as a Harvard-educated lawyer — even though he never passed a bar exam in the US or Taiwan.
Ma did study law at Harvard and did graduate, however, so one might presume that as a legally versed president of Taiwan, he would be more sensitive to a law banning the citing of polls in the days before an election.
The law is meant to prevent people from using nebulous polling to influence the results of an election. It applies to everyone, but is especially relevant to those who might try to use a position of power to sway an election.
In his defense, the KMT said that Ma did not realize it was less than 10 days before the election. Now 10 can be a hard number to calculate, especially if one is counting backwards, but one would hope that someone who went to Harvard could handle this situation with more care.
Further, the KMT said that Ma was speaking privately, not publicly, and so should be excused.
The distinction between private and public hardly seems applicable here. How can comments be anything but public when the person speaking is the president of the country and when they are delivered during an election campaign with a media entourage in tow?
In an unusual admission of error, Ma said that he was personally responsible and that he would pay the fine imposed on him by the Central Election Commission. This is all well and good, but deeper issues remain.
Is all of this simply a matter of Ma not knowing what day it is?
Or does Taiwan have a president who would deliberately step outside the bounds in an attempt to ward off a potentially embarrassing election result?
In either case, there is cause for concern — particularly with matters such as an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, the nation’s sovereignty and other key issues about to be placed on the table.
Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.
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