Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, already under fire over his government's poor handling of the aftermath of a deadly typhoon, is in trouble again.
In a public statement that caught everybody off-guard, his eldest sister, Ma Yi-nan, said her brother found the typhoon victims ungrateful.
In an e-mail to her, the president complained that he had tried hard to help the victims, she said, but only 'ended up being resented by those he was trying to help'.
'[Ma] felt very frustrated, and so he sent me an e-mail, saying he got only complaints from others despite all [the hard work] he had done,' Ma Yi-nan said while speaking at a book promotion event on Wednesday in Taipei. 'And lastly [Ma] asked why good people get poor rewards.'
Her remarks were broadcast almost hourly by some news channels, prompting an embarrassed Presidential Office to apologise on Ma's behalf yesterday. 'If the typhoon victims or members of the general public found this uncomfortable, the president would like to express his apology,' said office spokesman Wang Yu-chi.
More than 760 people were killed when Typhoon Morakot hit southern and eastern Taiwan on August 8. The disaster resulted in the resignation of the premier, Liu Chao-shiuan, and a cabinet reshuffle on September 10.
