The Presidential Private Parts Controversy

A controversy erupted yesterday, Saturday April 23, when a picture was uploaded to Facebook which allegedly showed out-going President Ma Ying-jeou with his private parts exposed while he was warming up for a road race.

The story of the compromising photograph being disseminated on the Internet led President-elect Tsai Ing-wen to issue a statement on her own Facebook page exhorting the media and individuals not to report on or show the picture, as it compromised the dignity of the office of president. This of course, only added fuel to the fire.

Today, Sunday, April 24, analysts said the picture was fake, and what had been claimed to be the presidential private parts was merely someone behind the president, and the effect of light and shadow. The photographer who uploaded the photo was identified as Jessie Chen (陳育賢), a DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) supporter.

Then KMT (Nationalist Party) members claimed that the photographer at the heart of the controversy was actually the President-elect’s personal photographer. What constituted an embarrassment to the out-going president yesterday, had become an embarrassment to the in-coming president today. Opponents accused Tsai of hypocrisy for referring to the photographer as ‘an independent journalist,’ when she must have known all along who it was. Nationalist Party Policy Committee Chief Tsai Zheng-yuan (蔡正元) accused her and her photographer of playing a cheap trick.

On Sunday evening a DPP spokesman denounced Tsai Zheng-yuan’s comments and accused the Nationalist Party of making up the connection between the photographer and Tsai Ying-wen. The spokesperson claimed that there had never been a formal written contract between Tsai or the DPP and Jessie Chen. He further pointed out that the source of information cited by the KMT was a Wikipedia article created the previous day. News.thewildeast.net has confirmed that the Wikipedia article on Jessie Chen that claims she is personal photographer to Tsai Ying-wen was created yesterday at 3.05 pm April 23, and has been in the process of heavy edits since. The original creator of the page has a history of warnings and bans for failing to maintain Wikipedia standards relating to neutral political points of view.

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