Fallen hero: How the tide turned for Taiwan’s Ma

TAIPEI: He won Taiwan’s largest ever landslide victory, a safe pair of hands promising prosperity and stability—but President Ma Ying-jeou leaves office this month caricatured as incompetent, aloof and wildly out of step with public sentiment.

Coolly coiffed with a sweep of jet-black hair, urbane Ma was seen as a reliable “Mr. Clean” when he stormed to victory for the Kuomintang party in 2008, replacing an outgoing opposition government mired in corruption.