Having featured in many war films in which he has brandished rifles and fired artillery, film actor Ko Chun-hsiung (柯俊雄) will face a real-life battle this December in which such weapons will be of no use to him.
Nominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Friday to represent Hsinchu City, Ko will vie with political rivals for support from voters.
He will need to survive a war of words before he can make advances through enemy territory and storm into the Legislative Yuan.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
A veteran actor who has won Best Actor honors several times at the Golden Horse Awards and at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Ko, a political novice, surprised many last Sunday when he prevailed over KMT Legislator Chang Tsa-mei (
Ko garnered 1,119 votes, which accounted for almost 60 percent of the total vote, and received a 33.01 percent approval rating in the party's opinion poll.
Although Chang scored 41.49 percent in the opinion poll -- the highest approval rating among the five people seeking the party's nomination -- she drew only 148 votes in the primary.
Criticizing the primary process as unfair, Chang said that she would run in the year-end elections despite not gaining the KMT's nomination.
She also said she would quit the party and join the Alliance of Independent Lawmakers.
In response, Ko said that he had devoted a great deal of effort and time to the welfare of Hsinchu City and its people.
He also expressed hope that the elections would proceed smoothly and that the party would find a way to stay united.
Propaganda
Ko, born in 1945 in Kaohsiung, started his movie career in the early 1960s.
He is best known for the heroic characters he played in an array of war films in which he starred in the 1970s.
Many of the films were set against the backdrop of the World War II Pacific theater. Others amounted to anti-communist propaganda, including films such as Everlasting Glory (
Ko's heroic image on the silver screen appears to be an advantage for his electoral ambitions.
"We have watched him, as a person and on screen, for so many years? He is just and reasonable, he can speak up for us," said a veteran serviceman surnamed Wang from Hsinchu City's Chuan-chun area.
"Chuan-chun" refers to the residential compound that was set up to house soldiers and their families when former president Chiang Kai-shek (
Veterans' issues
Ko said that pursuing the welfare of veterans is the primary issue that prompted him to run in the year-end legislative elections.
"I am the chief advisor of the Republic of China Veterans Association," he said.
"I can't stand idly by anymore in view of the ruling administration's fooling around," said Ko, who has been a KMT member for more than four decades.
Saying that he had become good friends with many veterans because of his experience in filming "patriotic" movies, Ko criticized the government for not taking good care of former members of the military and said that his wish is to campaign to support the causes important to veterans.
Ko has already had to face accusations that he holds views sympathetic to China. In view of his having registered to run in Hong Kong's 1996 provisional legislative election, some have accused him of having a soft spot for China.
Responding to these charges, Ko noted that he had pulled out of the Hong Kong race.
"The third day after I registered [my candidacy,] they approached me about giving up my KMT membership and joining the Chinese Communist Party," Ko said.
"But I refused, and withdrew from the race," he said.
Ko said that he loved Taiwan and that the Hong Kong story had been used by political rivals to paint him with the pro-China brush. "I am not worried about being painted by political rival with `the red brush.' My loyalty to the country is beyond doubt," he said.
"It is not an issue," he said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by