Taiwan as the World Turns: Ma-speak is the Order of the Day

Tuesday August 26, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The uninitiated would not recognize it, and those whose only knowledge of Taiwan is to talk to pan-blue stalwart friends long esconced in the States would applaud it, but Taiwan got another of its monthly dosage of Ma-speak when Ma clamored that the USA should really hasten to sell Taiwan defensive arms etc. etc.

Ma-speak is Ma's ability to talk on both sides of the fence and out of both sides of his mouth; its only claim to credibility is that Ma trusts that his audience has very short attention spans and never bothers to check what he said on the same subject last month, let alone last year. One also has to measure what Ma says against his actions--that too is a totally different field.

So when Ma said the USA should sell Taiwan arms this month, those, who do follow what Ma says regularly and keep track of his double promises, were wondering who he was talking to????

For the record Ma said when he became Chairman of the KMT in 2005 that he would push the arms procurement packages through the Legislative Yuan which his party the KMT of course controlled.

Then for the past 5 years nothing happened; of course Ma also became President so he could add that weight to other influence, but nothing still happened. (of course then the President was DPP and the KMT Legislature did not want him to get any credit; but that changed in 2008 so why are we still waiting??)

1. was the same year that Ma said that the KMT would divest itself of its ill-gotten gains; that also never happened, though Ma re-iterated the promise several times in the past year.

As was said, Ma counts on both people never checking that he made conflicting promises or instigated conflicting actions to whatever he says. In that way, he can always say, "Oh Yes, I spoke on that some time ago.... and all nod their heads sagely as they listen.