Ma Ying-jeou, the likely Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nominee for the Taiwanese presidency in 2008, began his embezzlement trial on Monday with a great campaign slogan:
"We all know that, in terms of the Criminal Procedure Law, a defendant is innocent until ruled guilty after three trials. [One trial, followed by 2 appellate court trials – The Foreigner] So I am still innocent and there should be no problem for me to run for the presidency."
The legislative whip of a minor Taiwanese nationalist party cynically noted that winning the presidency might be Ma’s best legal strategy, since Taiwanese presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office. Which is fine for Ma, but members of his party must be out of their minds to nominate a man whose only defense against the charge of embezzlement of public funds is that everybody else did it.
The KMT has one year – ONE YEAR – to find a clean candidate before the election. Rather than do that though, they’d rather while away the time making excuses for the current front-runner.
UPDATE: A good background editorial from the Taiwan News.