Next Time When Mr. Ma Ying-jeou Promises Something ...

To a flip-flopping politician, a promise is a road to power.
It ends where the power starts. ~~ Taiwan Echo ~~

Taiwan President (who presents himself as a Mr. in front of China) Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九先生) announced yesterday his intention to campaign for the chairman of the ruling party KMT. (昔主張總統不得兼主席// 馬：兼黨主席 義無反顧 )

Mr. Ma Ying-jeou was elected Taiwan President in March, 2008. Before then, in October of 2007 when he needed people's votes to grab the power, he promised to the public that he will never take the position of KMT chairman no matter what happens (馬上吳下 馬今宣布選黨魁):

國民黨總統參選人馬英九今天明確表示，雖然國民黨沒有特別規定總統與黨主席兩項職務的兼任與否，但他若當選總統後，不管在任何情況下，都絕不會競選黨主席，因為當總統的人本來就應專心國政。

KMT's presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, states clearly today, that although KMT doesn't have the rule to regulate if a person can take both the government president seat and KMT chairman concurrently, he will never campaign for the party chairman under any circumstance if he is elected the president. He says that the duty of a president require full focus on the state administration.

He elaborated his promise further (馬英九：專心國政 若當總統絕不兼黨主席):

記者問馬英九當選總統後是否將兼任黨主席，馬英九回答，「當然不會，我怎麼會去兼任黨主席呢」？他指出，國民黨主席須由黨員直選，不是當了總統就能當黨主席，黨政分離講求的是各有所司，而且當總統當然要專心國政。
When a journalist asked Ma if he will take KMT chairman concurrently after he is elected president. Ma says, "Of course not! Why on earth would I chair KMT concurrently?" Ma mentioned that KMT chairman has to be voted by party members but not be taken by the president. Ma also emphasized that the idea of "separation of party and government" is to stress that the party and government focuses on separate responsibilities, so certainly a president should focus on the state administration.

馬英九表示，雖然國民黨沒有對總統與黨主席兩項職務的兼任與否有特別規定，例如原本是黨主席，若選上總統可以繼續做到任滿，但也可選舉辭職，不管在任何情況下，他都不會去做黨主席。
Ma says, although KMT doesn't have a rule to regulate, for example, if a KMT chairman is elected the president, he is allowed to serve the full term of chairman or resign. But no matter under what situations, he will never chair KMT concurrently.

The promise was made at a time when he needed the public to entrust him with people's power, now all gone in the wind after he got the power in hand.

Is this sort of promise-breaking new to this person ?

Check out how he flip-flops before and after he grabs the power on the issues like "condemning Tiananmen mascara", "praise Dalai Lama" ... etc.

Chinese has a idiom:

人而無信，不知其可
When one can't keep his promises, we can't expect him be capable of doing anything.

Considering himself who upholds the traditional, legitimate Chinese culture, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou's behavior simply proves otherwise.

Next time, when you hear this person promise you something, you should know what to expect.

Update:

In an interview of Mr. Ma on 6/11/09:

With his candidacy Ma broke his earlier promise not to serve concurrently as president and KMT chairman.