If President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) motto of “integrity is my life” — which he has publicly repeated numerous times — were to be taken literally, he would currently be on life support.
This year’s Global Corruption Barometer report, conducted by Transparency International, dealt a debilitating blow to Ma and his administration, with 35 percent of Taiwanese respondents reported as paying a bribe to the judiciary in the past 12 months.