Ma again comes out to support unification... the dead Ma, that is.

Sorry for the misleading title. I've just updated it.

Just when you thought the people couldn't argue over a more irrelevant political point, this happens. The Taipei Times reports:

[President] Chen said the inscription on [KMT presidential candidate Ma
Ying-jeou's father] Ma Ho-ling's (馬鶴凌) urn said: "Replace independence with gradual unification, strengthen China and work towards unification."

... A KMT heavyweight, Ma Ho-ling occupied several high-ranking
party positions. He passed away in November 2005.

Ma Ho-ling's intimate connections with the family of former dictator
Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) helped fast-track his son's political career.

Chen's comments came in response to the KMT candidate's emotional plea
to voters on Saturday, during which he said he loved Taiwan and identified with
it....

Moreover, Luo said that Ma Ying-jeou had been very clear on his stance on
the nation's sovereignty, adding that the KMT candidate believes the future of
Taiwan must be decided by its 23 million inhabitants. [A-gu: not true. Really.
He's called for Taiwan's future to be decided by people on both sides of the
strait, the same as Beijing's position.]

Ma has always been in favor of maintaining the "status quo," he said,
while urging Chen not to manipulate the truth.

And the China Post:

Lo Chih-chiang, Ma's campaign manager, characterized Chen's sideswiping against the elder Ma as "a desecration." "It's most unfair of the president to smear the man who is already dead," he pointed out.

Moreover, Lo said, Chen misquoted the epitaph.

"As a matter of fact," Lo pointed out, "the first part of what he quoted is: '(Tried to help) Evolve (the) independence (movement) into (a) unification (movement)."

It is morally indefensible to smear the deceased with a misquotation, Lo charged.

Well, what we don't know is who put this on the urn (dropped the ball on that one reporters). Frank Hsieh suggests Ma Ying-jeou himself may have written it, but offers this only as a hypothetical possibility. Ma Ying-jeou offers no hints.

But more importantly, who cares? I agree this is disrespectful. Attack Ma on his records. Replay his old quotations on this topic over and over. Don't talk about his father.