Rarely in Taiwan's 17 years of democracy have opinion polls painted a president as unpopular as Ma Ying-jeou. Though he is often accused of being ineffectual, it is actually a rare show of decisiveness that has lost Mr Ma (pictured, left) recent support. At issue is his handling of alleged wrongdoing by a titan of Mr Ma's Kuomintang (kmt), Wang Jin-pyng (pictured, right). The effect has been to threaten the unity of the ruling party, as well as send ripples across the Taiwan Strait. "We can't just muddle our way through this," Mr Ma said on September 8th. That was two days after prosecutors alleged that Mr Wang had used his influence as the speaker of parliament in a court case.
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