Taiwaner of the Week

This week I have name two winners of my Taiwaner of the Week award. I know the story took place last weekend and was posted on The View from Taiwan but bare with me it is almost impossible to scoop Mr. Turton.

Kuang Li-chen and Wu Chun-li
[Photo by Hang Tsun-Wei, from the Taipei Times ]

So you get in some trouble with the law for some corrupt activites like vote buying and profiteering. How do you fight the law? How do you get back at the man when you were the man? Well the answer is simple; divorce your wife and have your now ex-wife run in your place. You see this story started way back in December 2005.

Wu Chun-li (吳俊立) won an election last December 3 to gain the county commissioner post. He was suspended on December 20 after being sworn-in because of profiteering charges stemming from his days as Taitung County councilor. He then divorced his wife Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) and named her deputy magistrate. This slick move allowed Wu to circumvent laws that prohibit naming close relatives as deputies.

Facing profiteering and vote-buying charges Wu formally resigned on January 23. He is appealing the case. This led to a Taitung County Commissioner by-election. This also led to Ms. Kuang's decision to run for the Taitung County Commissioner position. On April 1st, Kuang Li-chen is elected in a landslide to become the first female magistrate in Taitung's history. The quote of the week goes to Ms. Kuang when she yelled "We won it back!" upon hearing the election results.

Some argue that she is ill-suited for the position based on the fact that she has little or no experience. KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to rescue promising to establish an advisory group led by former deputy Taipei mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) to assist Ms. Kuang. She said her goals are to improve Taitung's tourism and cultural activities. She is well suited for this being a former flight attendant. Reporters asked Mr. Wu if he would hold the real power and he responded that it didn’t matter because “everyone in Taitung would try to make the county a better place.”

I thought that maybe she had grown tired of her husband’s corruption and vote-buying but the picture tells the whole story. Nothing could keep the lovebirds apart. They were actually re-married the very next day. So I guess Ma's advisory group is now unecessary now that the two have reconciled. Ms. Kuand defended the re-marriage: .

.. transform the small love (between two people) into the greater love (for the public)" and was an expedient for the county's sake.

Some have criticized the apparently lily white KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for going to the county to publicly campaign for Ms. Kuang. He said she needed to be incorruptible or be subject to party discipline. Ma said:

The Kuomintang is very serious about anti-corruption and will not allow any violation of the law and party discipline. Since we decided to offer our endorsement, we need to guarantee she will not behave in such a way.

He failed to mention that even if she is incorruptible (highly unlikely), she will still be able to keep her position even if the KMT brass decides kicks her out at some point. Meanwhile, Kuang urged the public to respect the Taitung voters' decision, saying:

the losers should not badmouth (the winners) to disguise their failure.

Don’t even think about criticizing asuccessful attempt to manipulate the Taitung County magistrate by-election or nothing will happen.