Ma Ying-Jeou must be held responsible for the death of the hundreds of villagers

I am excited about the following great news! I wish it had happened one week earlier. I wish Ma Ying-Jeou had not turned down rescue aid from Japan and US in the first hour of the onslaught of Typhoon Morakot.

美軍直升機 今馳援台灣

〔記 者范正祥、王述宏、羅添斌、蔡清華／綜合報導〕美國重型軍用直升機即將援台救八八水災！外交部昨天接獲美方通知，美國政府最快在今天中午就會派遣由美方人 員操作、可吊掛重型機械的直升機來台，並提供人道救援物資。這將是台美斷交、美軍撤軍後，美國軍機第一次以「人道援助」名義，登上台灣土地。...

It was questioned early on why Ma Ying-Jeou refused offer of rescue operations from Japan and US. The obvious reason was

Since Ma Ying-Jeou considers Taiwan a part of China, he could not accept assistance from Japan and US without first getting a nod from China.

Many villagers perished in the flood and mud slide could have been saved if Ma had not had refused foreign rescue offer. Hundreds (if not thousands) innocent people died because of Ma's political consideration.

Ma loves to take credit (e.g., the defunct 3-KM Maokong Gondola) and he loves power (e.g., KMT chairmanship), but he hates responsibility. When things go wrong, he finds fall guys. He now claims that he did not refuse foreign rescue aid. Who, then, refused foreign rescue offer on behalf of Taiwan? It was a subordinate named 夏立言 from the Ministry of Foreign Affair (外交部, MOFA):

婉謝外援？夏立言：文字疏忽 願負責

* 2009-08-14
* 中國時報
* 【中廣新聞／杜大澂】

外交部發公文婉謝外援傳聞引發爭議，外交部次長夏立言今天表示，的確有發公文表示接受國際捐款，只是疏忽沒有在人力和物力不接受外援前，加了「暫時」兩個字 ，他願意因為疏忽接受處份。不過，夏立言表示，目前包括美國、日本、新加坡和韓國都已經捐款援助，物資援助的部分，美日方面已經進行積極聯絡。

南台灣災民不能即時等到救援，政府能力備受質疑，有沒有拒絕外國幫忙？也成了焦點。傳聞外交部發公文婉謝外援，部長歐鴻鍊出國開會，由次長夏立言出面解釋。夏立言表示，的確有發公文，內容除了接受國際捐款，根據目前情資，不需要人力和物力援助。

夏立言進一步指出，公文上漏掉「暫時現階段」是文字上的疏忽，願意負起責任。
不過，夏立言表示，國際捐款情形相當踴躍，美國捐了25萬美金、日本1000萬日幣、新加坡25萬美金，韓國12萬美金，至於，我國提出七項物資援助，美日各國也都已經積極聯絡。

夏立言 gracefully took the fall for Ma Ying-Jeou. But Ma Ying-Jeou must take the fall himself. Let me start with an analogy.

Imagine a professor improperly delegates the grading of a class to his teaching assistants. If this becomes an issue, who will take the blame? The professor, or the teaching assistants?

Accepting or declining foreign rescue during a national emergency cannot be the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is the responsibility of the leaders, including and especially the president. He cannot delegate responsibility to subordinates, take credits when things go smoothly, but let subordinates take the fall when things go wrong. I conclude

• If Ma is not willing to accept responsibilities of a president, he must step down instantly,
• If he is willing to accept such responsibilities, then he should be charged with the unnecessary death of the hundreds of villagers.

Taiwanese must not tolerate a fraud who only wants privileges, but takes no responsibilities. He will bring more and bigger disasters.