Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking a second term, yesterday called on his rival not to focus campaign debates on subjects irrelevant to city affairs, saying that voters would be revolted by the pointless arguments.
Ma was referring to issues such as national identity and betel-nut beauties. Both subjects were raised by Annie Lee (李安妮), Academia Sinica researcher and daughter of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), over the weekend in criticizing Ma.
On Sunday, Lee compared Ma's jogging outfits to outfits worn by betel-nut beauties. A runner, Ma is frequently photographed in T-shirt and shorts.
Lee also said Ma has yet to present any concrete policies and is apparently counting on courting female voters with his looks and his well-heeled family-connections.
"Some of my friends even have sexual fantasies about Ma," she said.
On Saturday, Lee hinted that she thought Ma was confused about national identity, a reference to the furor caused last December when he asked fans not to bring the national flag into the stadiums for Asian Football Confederation Women's Championship games.
Yesterday Ma advised the DPP not to get underprivileged groups involved in the campaign, referring to the betel-nut beauties, because they are running busi-nesses which must comply with the law.
As for national identity, Ma said the issue is utterly irrelevant to the mayoral election and "voters would be repelled if politicians deliberately ignited ethnic tensions at this time."
Cheng Tsun-chi (鄭村棋), director of the city's Bureau of Labor Affairs said that Lee has shown her contempt for the working class by referring to betel nuts in a negative manner.
DPP mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) declined to comment on the war of words between Lee and Ma.
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