Punish Ma for what?

It is amazing and wonderful to see the former president, who led Taiwan for 12 years after succeeding Chiang Ching-kuo, still healthy and actively campaigning at 86 years of age.

However, President Lee has taken to stretching the truth when it comes to defending his own record and criticizing others.

Speaking to a crowd on Friday, Lee declared that it is not right for a former president to criticize the incumbent president.

As soon as that sentence left his mouth, Lee launched a tirade against current President Ma Ying-jeou and the ruling Kuomintang.

According to Lee, Ma and the KMT have performed so poorly that the voters should “punish” them when they go to the polls for the year-end local government elections.

Naturally, Lee encouraged voters to choose candidates from his Taiwan Solidarity Union, whose fortunes have declined sharply since the number of elected lawmakers was slashed in half starting in 2008.

Lee claimed that Ma has failed to understand the hardships that ordinary people are suffering amid the ongoing global economic slowdown and high unemployment.

He also said he was against Ma's policy of “tying up” Taiwan's economy with mainland China and that the disastrous flooding in the wake of Typhoon Morakot was the “straw that broke the camel's back” prompting him to make a stand against President Ma's government.

Lee also laughed at the KMT's recent decision to overturn and redo the just-conducted Central Standing Committee election amid allegations of gift-giving and vote-buying by some of the winners.

He said it was probably the “first time in history” that the KMT had ever taken such a step and blamed Ma for losing his ability to lead the party.

Lee's harshest words were saved for the government's decision to permit imports of American beef.

When a reporter asked him if he personally ate U.S. beef, Lee carefully responded by declaring he didn't eat “sick beef.” Many of the former president's complaints have indeed been leveled at Ma and the KMT by others.

And with elections right around the corner, it is even understandable for Lee to be liberal with the facts as he tries to help his small party stage a comeback.

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