Amid heated criticism, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) yesterday apologized for his remarks directed at Hualien City voters after the party lost a mayoral by-election on Saturday.
“I can pretend to respect the election’s result, but I cannot pretend not to despise the voters,” Tuan wrote on Facebook on Saturday after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Wei Chia-hsien (魏嘉賢) won the by-election against his DPP opponent, Chang Mei-hui (張美慧).
Tuan deleted the post following an online furor and wrote an apology on Facebook yesterday, which nevertheless accused the KMT of vote-buying.
“I apologize for my post-election comment yesterday... I apologize for allowing a party with a long history of vote-buying to be able to continue attacking a DPP candidate after the election, and for embarrassing our supporters,” he wrote.
“Why can a clean election environment not be maintained without threatening words and continuous oversight?” wrote Tuan, who has repeatedly been critical of the involvement of Wei’s family in vote-buying cases and its connection with China Unification Promotion Party Chairman Chang An-le (張安樂).
Tuan’s comments drew heated criticism, especially from KMT members.
KMT Legislator Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) yesterday called a news conference condemning Tuan and demanding that he resign immediately.
Hsu called on Tuan and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to apologize to the city’s residents, saying they were duly exercising their rights and did not deserve to be scorned.
Hsu said Tuan, a legislator-at-large, was elected by pro-DPP voters in Hualien, and she asked that Tuan resign and return the ballots to voters.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said any party that does not respect democracy would be eliminated.
“Do you [Tuan] despise anyone who does not support whom you support? Is universal suffrage and public participation not democratic enough without your approval?” Hung said.
“Politicians who talk about being humble all the time, but privately despise the public are the ones who really deserve contempt,” KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said, adding that the DPP has “incessantly” talked about being a humble administration, but all it has done is provoke conflict.
KMT member Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said Tuan’s comments were not an exception, as there have been many similar remarks during elections.
It has become common for pundits to criticize an electorate as having failed an intelligence test if an election’s result is undesirable, but criticism that disrespects voters and provokes hatred only harms the critics and the party they are affiliated with, Hsu Chiao-hsin said.
DPP spokesperson Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) said the election is over and all parties should act with discretion, and called on the KMT to not use the occasion to incite unnecessary conflict.
The DPP’s attitude toward the election’s result was clear, as it acknowledged defeat immediately after the election, Yang said.
All party members will carry on with reforms in Hualien and continue late Hualien mayor Tien Chih-hsuan’s (田智宣) legacy, Yang added.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS