TAICHUNG (Taiwan News) — One could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is deliberately trying to undermine Kuomintang (KMT) Chair Eric Chu (朱立倫) and the KMT’s chances in the upcoming presidential election.

I think it is unlikely that it was deliberate and that Ma’s actions are due to his deep-blue convictions, but the practical effect has been the same. Ma’s two overseas trips in April, to China and Greece, no doubt caused Chu some sleepless nights.

Ma participated in the Delphi Economic Forum, which was held from April 26-29 in Greece. This debacle started innocently enough with an invitation letter sent in January by Symeon G. Tsomokos, the forum's founder and president, in which Ma was addressed as "President Ma Ying-jeou Republic of China (2008-2016)."

From the invitation letter, the former president no doubt reasonably expected to be treated with dignity at the forum. He was not.

On April 19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) representative office in Greece noticed that Ma's title on the website was erroneously listed as "Former President of Taipei." The representative office protested to the organization's founder and president, Tsomokos, asking for a rectification.

The website changed Ma's title to "Former President of Taiwan" on April 21. While Ma no doubt was not happy that it was not the ROC, it was a title most Taiwanese would consider a dignified one for the former president.

Why did they do it?

It did not last. An interesting question is: Was this due to direct pressure from China, or did the forum just get cold feet out of fear China would react and did it themselves?

On April 26, MOFA discovered that Ma's listing on the site had again been modified to "Ying-Jeou Ma Former Leader of Taipei." It was at this point I expressed surprise on Twitter that they did not go the full monty and go for Chinese Taipei.

MOFA then filed another complaint with the organization and demanded another correction. By April 27, the website yet again changed the entry for Ma, this time opting for the title "Former President of the Kuomintang party," while his biography was listed as "coming soon."

Of course, that position does not even exist. Interestingly, this might have upset Ma for a different reason: From 1912-1914 the position did exist and the first president of the Kuomintang was none other than Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), and no one in the KMT would dare to sacrilegiously compare themselves to their revered founder.

MOFA issued a press release on April 28 that reaffirmed the "status of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a sovereign and independent state that cannot be questioned." It said that it firmly defends the sovereign status of Taiwan and is committed to "safeguarding the dignity of the country's former head of state."

This ludicrous and egregious piling on of insults upon injuries to the dignity of Taiwan and the total dishonor piled on a former president got significant press coverage and generated much outrage. This is not a pan-blue or pan-green issue, as a former president of the nation, Ma deserved proper honor and respect from his hosts.

MOFA stood strong, Ma did not

MOFA, to their credit, handled this well. They tried the diplomatic approach initially, but when the time came when that clearly was not working, they responded with a firm, clear, and robust defense of the dignity of the nation and the former president.

Unfortunately, former President Ma did not rise to the defense of his office, Taiwan or the Republic of China. He should have made strong statements about all of those things and refused to attend the forum.

Instead, he decided to stay and in front of an international audience pander to Beijing by saying just the kinds of unpopular statements that keep Eric Chu up at night. He played up the highly unpopular “1992 Consensus” and espoused “one China” ideology.

He called President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) statement that “the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC are two separate entities that exist independently of each other” unconstitutional. Ma’s mentor former President Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), whom Ma served as personal assistant and English interpreter for, would be spinning in his grave.

At a time when the People’s Liberation Army is threatening Taiwan daily, Ma declined to criticize Beijing or point out any of the provocations coming from the Chinese side. Instead, he blamed the democratically elected Tsai administration and suggested that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would be solely responsible for a Chinese invasion.

Ma set a terrible precedent in not defending his dignity nor that of Taiwan at the forum, then proceeded to undermine the Taiwanese government and the hard-working people at MOFA in front of an international audience. And for what?

Beijing did not do him a single favor after his visit in early April. They will not now.