That’s MISTER Ma, To The Likes Of You!

Wednesday's China Post relates the goal KMT chairman Wu Poh-Hsiung has in mind during his visit to Nanjing, China:

In particular, Wu wishes to persuade his Chinese Communist Party counterpart to get direct charter flights started between Taiwan and China [on] weekends [by] July 4.

But the Post's story leaves out the fact that Wu was so desperate to clinch the deal he couldn't bring himself to refer to his own country's newly-elected president as President Ma Ying-jeou.  Doing so would upset his hosts, who harbor territorial designs on Taiwan.

So "Mister Ma" it was, then!

“KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) addressed President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as ‘Mr. Ma’ during a banquet with Chinese Communist Party [CCP] officials on Monday night. This kind of behavior has me worried that he may have forgotten about Taiwan and its 23 million people,” Legislative Whip William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference.

One of the petulant displays of disrespect the KMT used to pay to Chen Shui-bian was to refer to him as "Mr." rather than "President" Chen.  It was, of course, their way of delegitimizing him – of pointedly insisting that they didn't accept Chen as the REAL president of Taiwan.

Fascinating then that the KMT now pays a president belonging to their OWN party the same discourtesy - and quite possibly with "Mr. Ma's" explicit blessing!

Question for the KMT:  If YOU no longer feel any particular need to call Ma Ying-jeou, "President," why should any of his political opponents back home feel obligated to do so?

Wednesday's Taipei Times continues:

. . . Deputy KMT caucus Secretary-General Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) downplayed the implication of Wu Poh-hsiung referring to Ma as “Mr” on Monday night.

Wu Yu-sheng said the KMT chairman’s comments reflected his intention to “put aside controversies and ensure mutual respect” for both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Controversial?  What's controversial?  Ma Ying-jeou was elected president with 60% of the popular vote.  No one in Taiwan disputes the fact that he won (reasonably) fair and square.  Some folks may not like it, but that's a separate issue.

Speaking of mutual respect, while in China, will Taiwan's Wu Poh-hsiung similarly refer to Hu Jintao as "Mr. Hu"?  That would be a sign of mutual respect.  Or mutual disrespect.  Or whatever.

(Because if anyone deserves to be called "Mr." instead of "President", it's Hu Jintao.  Recall that Hu has never been elected village dogcatcher, much much less president of HIS country.)

But hey, at least Taiwan can take comfort in the fact that the KMT chairman wasn't in FULL kowtow mode.  For that, he'd have to take a page from Taiwan's servile press, which regularly refers to Ma's wife by her English chosen name.

Though with the KMT's self-imposed July 4th deadline for cross-strait flights rapidly approaching, how long will it be before party luminaries visiting China truckle to Beijing by addressing Taiwan's president with the diminutive "Mark"?

(Say hello to my leetle friend – Mark Ma between the legs of former dictator Chiang Kai-shek.  Image from the Taipei Times)

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