[Buddha-l] President Ma Ying-jeou decides to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan

[JKirkpatrick]

JKirkpatrick wrote:
> Amazing.......a while back he decided not to allow HHDL to
visit 
> because of you know who's objections.
>   
Not so amazing. President Ma has been hit very very hard by the
Taiwanese public and media for his personal as well as his
government's poor handling of the typhoon aftermath. The
invitation actually came from the opposition, who after getting
HHDL's greenlight went to Ma and said "alright, we invited HHDL,
he agreed, now your call - do you have the guts to defy the
Communists?" Before the typhoon, there was festering unhappiness
that he was "selling out" to China. Given Ma and his government's
current ultralow approval ratings in Taiwan, he had no choice.
Saying no would have given the opposition one more excuse to rub
salt into his wounds. He has to worry less about China's reaction
than his own weak domestic position for the moment.

In other words, it's all political. Now the question is when HHDL
does go to Taiwan, will Ma meet him and if so, under what
protocol.

W.F. Wong
==============
Thanks for filling in the picture, Weng Fai.

Joanna