Flip-flopper Ma Ying-jeou Changes Tongue on his Cross-Strait Promise

Twisting the meaning of a promise is the way a flip-flopper keeps promises.
~~ Taiwan Echo ~~

Common Wealth Magazine (天下雜誌) had an interview (in Chinese) with Mr. Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on June, 11th, the first interview of Ma after Ma flip-flops on his pre-election promise of not campaigning for the KMT Chairman.

During the interview, Mr. Ma broke another promise on his intention regarding the cross-strait relationship, one that is much more crucial to Taiwan's future.

It is the 不統不獨不武 that Mr. Ma promised to the people of Taiwan before the election. The promise is translated to English by Ma's regime as:

No unification, No independence and No use of force

(See the regime's website for English translation of phrases.)

The words clearly mean "don't push for" or "don't want." It is more so in Chinese language, since the character "統" usually means an "action" (as a verb, like "unify") instead of "state of fact" (as a noun, like "unification"). The character "不" also bares the meaning of determination, means "I don't" or "I won't", but not a simple "no" as shown in English.

So a more precise translation of 不統不獨不武 should have been:

I won't push for unification, I won't push for independent, I won't use force

That's the promise he made at a time he needed trust of Taiwanese to give him the power.

Now, during the above-mentioned interview, Mr. Ma made a drastic twist (see also: 馬英九對統一議題表態引發爭議) on his own words (highlight by me):

我提出的不統不獨不武，八成民眾都支持，不統不是排除統一這個選項，而是在我任期八年內不去討論統一問題，因為這八年不可能有答案，這討論意義不大。

My 不統不獨不武 was supported by 80% of the people. The 不統 doesn't mean to exclude the option of "unification." It means that in my term of 8-year presidency we don't discuss the unification, because it's impossible to have an answer (on the unification) in these 8 years, so the discussion on this subject is insignificant.

After convincing most of Taiwanese that he won't push for the unification, he now twists the word into "no discussion." The alarming signal of his twist:

1) Ma's regime can push for the unification between Taiwan and China. As long as no discussion is made, his promise will be kept;

2) It's ok for Ma's regime to push for the unification without discussion with any one;

3) To make sure that his twisted promise is kept, any "discussion" of Ma's attempt of pushing the unification might be suppressed by Ma's regime.

This is a huge, huge turn of direction in terms of Ma Regime's cross-strait announcement. After twisting the meaning of his promise, Mr. Ma can now push the annexation of Taiwan to China and still tell people that his promise is kept.

Lastly, as side note, Mr. Ma has again displayed how he puts himself above the Constitution. In every one of his interviews that I know of, this person keeps mentioning that his term of presidency is 8 years, while Taiwanese only gave him 4-year of presidency, and most importantly, the time span of a president is defined as 4 years in the Constitution.

The interview covers many other subjects that I don't have time to share here.

Update: an English version of Mr. Ma's interview is found here.

Update2: a-gu's view and readers' comments on Mr. Ma's interview : Fallout from Ma interview: probably zero.

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.