Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate for Taipei County commissioner Luo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) challenger Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) yesterday clashed in a televised debate over personal integrity and how to turn Taipei County into a more appealing place to live.
The debate screened on the Public Television Service network and was the first time the two rivals had fleshed out their campaign platforms in a debate setting.
On taking the podium, Luo argued that Taipei County needs to win more construction funds and distribute the resources evenly to the 29 cities and townships in the county. This, he said, was more practical than his counterpart's merger idea that required the revision of at least three different laws.
"Taipei County should not just be an extension of Taipei City. It should build up its own autonomy, and I promise to transform it into great place to live for women, children and the elderly," Luo said.
In response to a question from Chiang Min-hsiu (
In response, Chou spoke about his desire to improve things in the county by merging it with Taipei City.
"Taipei County and the city are only separated by a river. But the county is falling far behind Taipei City in so many respects -- educational resources, the transport situation and public security," Chou said.
"At a time when Taipei County is becoming more marginalized, we should open our minds and make the place a competitive international metropolitan area by merging with the city and sharing more resources," he added.
Acknowledging that development of the county has faced difficulties, especially financially, Chou criticized the DPP for failing to address the problems during its rule of the county.
"Former commissioner Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) governed the county for eight years, and promised to make it a special district. Now the county carries a debt of NT$60 billion (US$1.79 billion). What solutions does the DPP have?" he asked.
He also questioned the DPP's policy of turning the county into a special district, instead of merging it with Taipei City.
Luo alleged that Chou had incorrectly cited statistics to denigrate Su's efforts to develop Taipei County and that Chou had shown little confidence in Taipei County's future.
He said Chou would shirk the responsibility of pushing Taipei County in the direction of a merger.
"Legislator Chou has been promoting the merger idea while he himself twice boycotted meeting on the merger issue held by former commissioner Su," Luo said. "And ironically, it was pan-blue camp legislators who hindered the merger proposal in the legislature."
In response, Chou defended his policy and asked Luo not to create conflict between city and county residents.
"We can identify areas with high crime rates in the greater Taipei area and have the city and county police work together to solve problems ? We can integrate educational resources so students in the county can attend local schools and still receive a good education without having to go to the city," Chou said.
Luo said Chou often held news conferences during his time in the legislature to "provoke confrontation" between the different parties.
"Chou has changed his party allegiance three times in five years -- from the KMT to the People First Party and now back to the KMT in order to gain the nomination," Luo said, "`Political opportunist' is a term that applies to a politician like Chou."
Chou, said that as a former county councilor and legislator who has served the county for over 27 years, he understood the problems that the county faces. He reiterated the importance of developing a greater Taipei area in his final statement.
"Taipei residents aren't our enemies. Many people go to work in the city during the day, and come home to the county after work. Do we really need to divide the two areas so distinctly?" he said.
Stressing the point that urban planning should not be complacent and conservative, Chou asked Luo to make a self-examination before talking about improving the county.
"The issues you mentioned today are problems left over by the DPP's local government. If you mean to make reform efforts, please tell us the mistakes DPP has made during its 16 years of control of the county," he said.
In the questioning session, Luo delivered a knock-out blow, questioning Chou's integrity and accusing him of engaging in fraud by exploiting his power while serving as a provincial councilor in 1997. Luo charged that Chou took advantage of his councilor's privilege to pressure a bank into loaning him NT$15 million (US$500,000) to invest without offering much as a guarantee. However, Chou's company quickly went into bankruptcy and Chou only returned NT$2 million to the bank.
Luo accused Chou of being one of the councilors responsible for forcing Taiwan's banks into a nightmare of bad debt.
Luo said he will produce substantial evidence over the next few days and told voters he would enable them to see Chou's lack of integrity for themselves.
Chou refuted the accusation, and instead questioned Luo's moral integrity for being corrected by a Control Yuan report that said he had improperly raised NT$20 million in campaign money for President Chen Shui-bian when Chen was running for Taipei mayor.
"With regard to the loan, I was just a guarantor for a friend. The whole issue went to court and I did what the law required me to do ... you should not repeatedly blacken my name," he told his opponent.
Towards the end of the debate, Luo said that he will insist on his belief in reform and keep promoting the `New DPP Movement,' even though he was given a hard time by some DPP members after championing intra-party reform.
The event yesterday was the first of a series of televised debates hosted by the Public Broadcast Station to give local candidates running for the Dec. 3 local elections a chance to promote their policies. During yesterday's debate, each candidate made an opening speech, and then answered a series of questions from two university professors. The two candidates were then allowed to question each other, and the debate ended with final statements.
Chou has not confirmed whether he will take part in the second debate. According to the latest poll conducted by the Liberty Times, Luo is trailing Chou by about 3 percentage points.
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