This was one of the major consensuses expressed by both of them during their first formal meeting in eight years after Lee handed the government to President Chen Shui-bian of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2000.

Ma and his running mate Vincent Siew, a former premier, called on Lee at the latter’s residence in the afternoon as the first stop of what Ma called the “study and learning tour” following a landslide presidential race victory over the weekend.

The meeting, originally scheduled for one hour, lasted for 100 minutes as they engaged in enthusiastic exchanges on national development policies and experiences about how to best serve the people.

Ma said he thanked President Lee’s encouragement for him and Siew as well as the valuable suggestions he gave them.

He said that the former president especially gave them repeated reminders that the DPP administration has failed the people in the past years mainly because of rampant corruption.

Lee expressed his deep disappointment in the corruption of DPP leadership and administration.

Ma said he and Siew are determined to run a clean administration for the benefits of the people.

Lee praised Ma for his “home stay” project preceding the election so that he could get first-hand experiences about the life and work of people in all walks of life, especially those in the rural areas.

Ma said he learned a lot from the former national leader who offered vital suggestions for governing in the next four years.

Lee offered to help the government to be led by Ma to cultivate relations with Japan, which colonized Taiwan for 50 years until the end of the World War II in 1945.

He gave both Ma and Siew books he published as gifts while Ma gave some of his recently published books in return.

The Ma-Lee meeting became a closed watched political event because of the tumultuous relations between the two in modern Taiwan politics.

Ma served for half a year as Lee’s secretary and interpreter after he succeeded former President Chiang Ching-kuo as the national leader and chairman of then ruling Kuomintang (KMT) in 1988.

Lee gave Ma’s running for Taipei mayor a vital boost by calling Ma a “new Taiwanese” to defeat Mayor Chen Shui-bian’s re-election bid in 1998.

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