Controversy erupted yesterday over Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung’s declaration late on Monday night that yesterday would be a full typhoon day, with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) saying that he was “ashamed” an extra typhoon day had been called.
The three municipalities announced at 8pm on Monday that work and schools would be canceled for half a day yesterday morning. However, two hours later, they announced the entire day would be a typhoon day.
The absence of rain and wind yesterday morning led reporters to question Ko about the appropriateness of a second typhoon day due to Typhoon Dujuan.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“I feel ashamed — an apology is owed to the public for a typhoon holiday being declared for this kind of weather,” he said.
He said the 8pm decision had been made by the departments of the three municipalities based on data provided by the Central Weather Bureau.
“I just took a look and said okay, but the result is that city residents are pretty dissatisfied,” he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The three cities should collectively bear responsibility for the decision, he said.
Sources said the 8pm decision was based on data that showed that New Taipei City would “brush” the edge of the wind speed standard for canceling classes and work, while Taipei did not meet the standard.
Ko said there was no precedent for starting work and classes in the afternoon after a typhoon holiday, adding that the situation yesterday was also unusual because it would have been the first working day following a long weekend.
Ko confirmed that New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had called him on Monday night, but said that more than half of the telephone call had simply been “chatting.”
He denied that the call to alter the decision had been made by one person or because of public pressure.
The decision was made because the high-speed rail and Taiwan Railways Administration trains were only scheduled to resume service yesterday afternoon, which meant that people who had traveled south or to the east coast to visit relatives for the Mid-Autumn Festival would not be able to get to work in the morning, Ko said.
The three municipalities would continue to make decisions about typhoon holidays together, he said.
In New Taipei City, Chu said the decision to declare a full day off was based on post-Mid-Autumn Festival traffic conditions and the need to clean roads and sidewalks of debris left by the storm.
As for rumors that his government only wanted half a typhoon day, Chu said the decision to declare a full day had been made by all three municipalities.
However, Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) of the Democratic Progressive Party expressed a different view on the decisionmaking process.
He said New Taipei City was to blame for the 8pm announcement, and that he had only been told about the half-day plan at 7:45pm.
Lin said that he and Ko both had reservations about the plan, but had been unable to contact Chu before New Taipei City announced it.
From now on, Keelung would make its own decision about typhoon days, rather than just going along with Taipei and New Taipei City’s decisions, he said.
The other two cities should listen to Keelung’s view before making their own decision and expecting Keelung to fall in line, he said.
Taipei city councilors and parent groups blasted the decisionmaking process, saying that the “flip-flops” had created uncertainty.
Taipei City Councilor Kuo Chao-yan (郭昭巖) of the KMT said that Ko should learn from this experience to get a better grip on public opinion and disaster situations to ensure a more “thorough” decisionmaking process in the future.
Additional reporting by Liang Pei-chi
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
RSS