ed remains of his late father a grand burial to improve his chances at the 2008 presidential election, a newspaper reported yesterday. Just last week, Ma resigned as KMT chairman after prosecutors accused him of diverting money from a public fund to his private account while he served as Taipei mayor.
Insisting on his innocence, Ma declared his candidacy for the March 2008 race. Political analysts say if the court does not acquit him, Ma's road to presidency could be bumpy.
Nonetheless, Ma is well liked because of his handsome looks and otherwise clean image and has remained a key presidential favorite despite the indictment, according to recent opinion polls.
Prominent geomancers have advised Ma to turn his recent bad luck around by giving his late father a formal burial. Ma's father died last year and his cremated remains are kept in a pagoda to comply with a city ban on burial.
Geomancy, also known as fengshui, is an ancient Chinese practice of arranging objects and spaces to achieve harmony with the environment.
Until burials were banned in crowded cities over the past decade, Taiwanese traditionally consulted fortunetellers before having their parents buried. The ancestors, if properly buried at locations with good geomancy, are believed to be able to bring good fortune to their offspring, or bad luck if otherwise.
When a politician formally brought up the burial suggestion this week in a local community gathering, Ma brushed it off as "pure superstition," the Apple Daily reported.
The newspaper quoted fengshui expert Chang Ching-yuan as advising Ma to have second thoughts and find a way to skirt the ban on burials so his father's ashes and bones "could receive auspicious elements from the air and land" to bless his offspring.
"The year 2008 doesn't look to be such a good year for Ma, so he must pay more attention to fengshui to improve his luck," Chang was quoted saying.
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