Although often disturbed by fervent supporters of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) during his long-stay activities, Ma has successfully stirred a whirlwind in southern Taiwan and has caused hot discussions among southern grassroots people on Ma’s “home stay” stories. After having personal contact with Ma, quite a few DPP supporters began to develop good impressions of Ma, or at least lost some of the disdain they previously held towards him.

A typical example happened last week, when Ma visited Kaohsiung and spent one night at the home of a host of a pro-DPP radio station. The host, nicknamed Su Lan, immediately accepted the request, raised by Ma’s campaign staff, to stay at her home, where three generations of the family reside. The real challenge for Ma’s camp was how to persuade Su Lan’s father-in-law, who is a hardcore supporter of the DPP to approve the request.

Lawmaker Lou Shih-hsiung of the KMT finally persuaded Su Lan’s father-in-law to approve the request, but her father remained unwilling to come downstairs to chat with Ma, while Sulan and many DJs of southern radio stations enjoyed talks with the presidential hopeful.

Eventually, Lou persuaded Su Lan’s father-in-law to come downstairs and say hello to Ma, finally taking a picture with the KMT presidential candidate. Her father also said that he personally wasn’t disgusted at Ma.

Furthermore, Sulan’s neighbors, eager to have a look at Ma, swarmed to Sulan’s home, actively joining their talks, seeking signatures from Ma and taking pictures with him. This was despite the fact that the neighbors were not so familiar with Sulan’s family.

Ma left Sulan’s home early the following morning, yet leaving many interesting chatting topics among people in Sulan’s residential community. “I talked with Ma Ying-jeou last night,” some said happily and proudly.

This was a common scene found during Ma’s “home-stay” programs. “Ma resided in my home last night,” and “That night I talked with Ma for one hour” are among responses to Ma’s home-stay scheme, which has left a good impression on the hosts.

Lawmaker Hou Tsai-feng of the KMT, who is wellknown for supporting Speaker Wang Jin-pyng of the Legislative Yuan, also supported Ma’s hardworking spirit shown in the long-stay program.

Hou said Ma had to sit up till late at night and leave early in the morning during his visits to southern counties and cities. Hou continued that there were still a lot of people rushing to invite Ma to stay at their homes.

Inspired by the encouraging result of garnering some support from southern grassroots people, Ma’s camp has decided to conduct a second round of similar programs.

In related news, Ma said yesterday that if the ruling DPP can move to support the KMT’s bill to rejoin the United Nations under the name of the Republic of China or other proper title, then the controversies over the referendum of the U.N. bid can be settled.

He made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions when attending a banquet hosted by the KMT’s deputy chairman Chan Chun-po.

When asked by reporters to answer whether the KMT would withdraw its bill to rejoin the UN in case the DPP withdraws its own bid to join the UN under the name of Taiwan, Ma replied, “I will give you the answer after the DPP withdraws its bid.”

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