Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) 11-day trip to the US last month generated significant criticism from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors yesterday when Ma reported on his visit to the Taipei City Council.
DPP city councilors denounced Ma for using the trip, designed to attract business to Taipei, to promote the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) interests. Ma is also the KMT chairman and he promoted the KMT's cross-strait policies on several occasions.
The purpose of the trip and its cost, at more than NT$3 million (US$92,170), came under fire from DPP city councilors, who said the mayor was making Taipei residents pay for the trip.
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"You failed to separate the city government's spending and schedule from those of the KMT's. As mayor, you should not promote the KMT's private interests under the guise of serving Taipei residents," DPP Councilor Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰) said during the question-and-answer session.
Ma immediately dismissed the accusation, saying he had made it clear that the KMT would pay the bulk of his travel costs.
"I made the KMT pay most of the bill in order to prevent such accusations," he told Lan.
DPP Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (
"Were you Mayor Ma leading city officials to visit Taipei's sister cities in the US, or [were you] Chairman Ma, promoting the KMT's platform in the US? In this case, I think Chairman Ma has kidnapped Mayor Ma," she said.
DPP Councilor Li Wen-ying (
"My skill at fawning over others is not as good as the DPP's," Ma replied.
He said that at a time when the country's economic strength was weakening, the trip to create more business opportunities for Taipei was crucial, and it would take time to see the results of these efforts.
During the question-and-answer session, Ma said that the Presidential Office's record of his April 3 meeting with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had deleted some of his remarks.
"It's like the Presidential Office vaporized me," Ma said.
The Presidential Office's Department of Public Affairs issued a statement saying that it was the common practice for its press releases to cover only Chen's comments when he received guests.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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