Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday accused an overseas consulate official of publishing insulting remarks about Taiwanese.
Kuan said Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), director of the information division at Taiwan’s representative office in Toronto, had written numerous articles in which he defamed Taiwan and insulted Taiwanese people.
The legislator said Kuo, under the pen name Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽), had used insulting terms in his articles to refer to Taiwanese, such as taibazi (台巴子, meaning “Taiwanese rednecks”) or wokou (倭寇, meaning “Japanese pirates”).
‘RIDICULOUS’
Kuo also made numerous “ridiculous” remarks in his articles, such as saying that “[China] should spend many years suppressing [people in Taiwan] instead of granting any political freedom [to them] once it has taken Taiwan by force,” Kuan said.
She said that Kuo had also claimed that “the imposition of martial law had been a benevolent act of the then government” and that “the Maokong Gondola is problematic because it was sabotaged by Taiwanese independence [activists].”
Kuan said she discovered that Kuo was using “Fan Lan-chin” as a pen name because he had previously submitted a piece in Fan’s name to the Chinese-language China Times for a supplement on Aug. 2, 2006, and also included his real name.
She urged Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) to look into the matter immediately and punish Kuo for publicly vilifying the nation and voicing support for a Chinese military crackdown on Taiwan.
Su was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he confirmed on Wednesday that Kuo was a staffer at the nation’s Toronto office.
INVESTIGATION
The GIO minister promised to launch a GIO investigation into the matter, saying that Kuo might have violated the principle of administrative impartiality if he had in fact written the articles.
GIO Vice Minister Hsu Chiu-huang (許秋煌) told the Taipei Times Kuo said that he and “a group of friends” shared the pen name.
Hsu said that, for now, the GIO would not punish Kuo if it turns out he had written the articles, on the principle of personal freedom of speech.
However, Hsu said the GIO would continue to evaluate Kuo based on his job performance in promoting the nation’s international publicity efforts.
Hsu said he had asked Kuo to speak and act cautiously and told him that his personal life should never get in the way of his official duties.
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