The fundraising campaign initiated by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (
DPP Legislator Wang Shih-cheng (
"I hope Shih will put an end to such ridiculous behavior so he won't destroy his reputation," Wang said. "I wish he had been executed during Chiang Ching-kuo's (
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
TV political commentator Wang Ben-hu (
He called on the public to join the Aug. 26 campaign he is organizing to "protect A-bian and safeguard Taiwan" at the 228 Peace Park.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) criticized Shih for "arrogance," saying that he brazenly rejected their "friendly" efforts to dissuade him from continuing.
While the Democratic Action Alliance is also planning to officially commence its national anti-Chen Shui-bian campaign by taking to the streets on the same day as Shih, Huang said Shih had put on an air of self-importance and refused to negotiate with the alliance.
"It makes me feel that he has become someone I don't know any more," Huang said. "I don't want to see his moral arrogance. Even former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was not that arrogant when he was dealing with opposition parties."
Shih is often dubbed the "Nelson Mandela of Taiwan" because of the 25 years he served in prison as a result of his pro-democracy activism.
DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (
"Although I do not support his campaign, I feel ashamed about what the first family has done," he said. "I feel even more ashamed about the way my colleagues have responded to Shih."
Lee said DPP members could at least keep quiet when they cannot figure out a way to resolve the problem.
"If they want to respond, they must respond with dignity and consider the public reaction," he said. "Defensive or defamatory remarks will only further disappoint our supporters."
Shih's former wife, Linda Gail Arrigo, yesterday said Shih's campaign was not an act of conscience but an unwillingness to remain out of the limelight.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (
"Although they say that they are defending a localization regime, they are actually defending a government embroiled in corruption," Tsai said.
Tsai said the KMT fully support Shih's campaign, but it won't order its party members to participate in the campaign in the hope of avoiding making the campaign a confrontation between the pan-green and pan-blue camps.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (
"Rather, it should be a problem of fighting corruption or not." Lu added.
He said the PFP will not attend Shih's campaign in the name of the party, but it will encourage the participation of its party members and supporters.
Meanwhile, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday said he was worried about the possible eruption of conflict between radical forces calling the president to step down and those opposing such calls. Yu has also been advised by senior DPP officials to consider canceling his scheduled visit to the US in early next month.
As the government, the DPP's priority is to maintain political stability and concentrate on national development, said senior DPP officials. For that reason, they said, the DPP will not organize any activities to counter Shih.
Yu has called on Shih to exercise "self-restraint" and said he had tried to pacify people like Wang Pen-hu, but to no avail.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and CNA
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater