Ma Ying-jeou reveals Lee Kuan Yew once spoke dialect in Taiwan, surprising ex-president Chiang Ching-kuo

SINGAPORE — With the Taiwan presidential election just three months away, observers are watching whether the opposition in Taiwan will put up a united front to unseat the ruling Democratic Progressive Party .

Asked about this combination on the sidelines of the Asia Future Summit on Thursday , Ma, 73, said both sides have started to discuss a collaboration but nothing definite can be said about it for now. What is for sure, he added, is that polls have shown that about 60 per cent of voters want the DPP to be “taken off the shelf”.

He said he had already voiced his objection in 2022 and was “not surprised” that the DPP did it again this year. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been ruled separately since the KMT fled to Taiwan in the wake of its defeat by the Communist Party of China in a civil war in 1949. During Ma’s two terms as Taiwan’s president from 2008 to 2016, the two former foes shelved their political differences to forge greater trade links. But cross-strait relations have cooled since the DPP’s Ms Tsai came to power in 2016.

During the interview with ST, Ma recounted an anecdote about Singapore’s founding prime minister: Lee once visited Sun Moon Lake with Chiang and conversed in the Minnan dialect with shop owners there. Upon hearing this, the mainland-born Chiang told Lee: “Sorry, I still don’t know how to speak Minnanese.”

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