Taiwan's Ma re-emerges -- as Nationalist saviour
1998-12-06

Nations China People Ma Ying-jeou Chen Shui-bian University Harvard University

TAIPEI - Ma Ying-jeou, who dramatically won the Taipei mayoralty in elections on Saturday, quit Taiwan's cabinet and politics a year ago, disgusted with what he saw as the meek, unresponsive government of his Nationalist Party.

His victory on Saturday against a heavyweight opposition incumbent has now swept him back into high office, making him one of the ruling party's most promising and powerful leaders.

The 49-year-old Ma, an ex-justice minister and one of his party's most popular figures, beat Chen Shui-bian of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party with 51 percent of votes.

Chen was widely seen as a presidential hopeful.

Before the elections, public opinion polls showed Ma and Chen neck-and-neck, far ahead of the New Party's Wang Chien-shien.

Chen's 1994 victory in Taipei dealt an embarrassing blow to the Nationalists, who until then had always run the capital and its significant political and financial resources.

The defeat accelerated a far-reaching shake-up in the Nationalist Party, which until Taiwan's democratic renaissance in the late 1980s had ruled Taiwan with an iron fist, empowered by martial law rather than popular elections.

The party that fled mainland China in 1949 after its Republic of China was toppled by the communists now sees its survival in fresh young talent like Ma -- a Harvard lawyer who enjoys strong support among women and mainland immigrants.

His candidacy was something of a surprise.

Ma quit the cabinet and took up teaching in 1997, citing disappointment with the government's response to public anger over rising crime. The party's highly public campaign to lure him back for the mayoral bid swelled his influence.

With his election, Ma emerges as the potentially powerful leader of a new generation of ``new Taiwanese'' Nationalists whose identity is tied almost solely to Taiwan, rather than the Chinese mainland where the Nationalists have their roots.

``This isn't just Ma Ying-jeou's personal victory. It's a victory for all citizens. It shows the notion of new Taiwanese won a victory,'' Ma told cheering supporters after his victory. [Reuters]