President Ma Ying-jeou’s notebook will not be among the files and records to be transferred to the incoming government as part of transition of power protocol, the president’s spokesman stated on Sunday (April 17).

Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen stated Sunday that Ma would transfer files in accordance with existing regulations as stipulated by the Archives Act and the Classified National Security Information Protection Act.

The statement comes amidst calls by some legislators, including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Chuang Rei-hsiung for the president to handover the notebook, saying that to do so would be a great boon for national affairs.

“Hasn’t he (Ma) been very impartial during his time in office? He should really give this some thought,” Chuang said.

Chen said he was not aware of the DPP’s calls to have access to the president’s notebook, which he stated represented the president’s “personal belongings.” Chen stated that archives for former presidents and vice-presidents have already been established inside the Academia Historica, and no further discussions had been made on placing Ma’s notebook there.

Since the notebook does not fall into the confines of documents to be transferred, it of course cannot be taken without his consent, stated DPP legislator Hsu Kuo-yung. Hsu added that Ma’s providing the notebook for the reference of President-elect Tsai Ing-wen would demonstrate “goodwill.”

Legislator Hsu Yung-ming of the New Power Party (NPP) said that “people are of course curious to know what President Ma has been jotting down.” Hsu suggested that presidential libraries established in the United States could serve as an example for historical documents and other presidential notes. He added that those documents could be stored at such a library and made public in the future.

The idea certainly did not sit well with Ma’s own party. Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Lai Shyh-bao said that former president Chen Shui-bian did not submit his notebook(s), and wondered what repercussions Ma’s submission would generate. He questioned whether it would generate a precedent in which the premier and other ministers would also follow suit.

A written notebook is one way the president has kept notation and probably includes personal information just as a phone or computer would, Lai added.
“If those have to be transferred as well, that would be too much,” he said.