A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilor yesterday accused a civil group that promotes de jure independence of encouraging an autocratic mentality by spraying the slogan "Be loyal to the leader. I love the president" onto electricity transformer boxes in Taipei.
Lin Yi-hua (
SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
Lin condemned the society for fawning on President Chen Shui-bian (
"The group is known for its pro-independence stance and struggles against authority, yet it sprayed the kind of slogan only seen in the Martial Law era. It's unbelievable," Lin said, adding that the slogan had been written on boxes at several other locations.
A local resident surnamed Wang (
"Some people agree with these beliefs and others don't. But I don't think spraying these slogans on the street is appropriate or helpful to society," he said.
CLEAN UP
Lin urged the department to fine the group and clean up the graffiti messages.
Chiang Chin-hui (
The department will fine those responsible for spraying the slogans between NT$1,200 and NT$6,000, Chiang said, as graffiti violates the Waste Disposal Act (
"The department must first determine who the violators are before taking further action. Taipower will have to clean up the boxes if we can't find the violators within a week," Chiang said.
APOLOGY WANTED
The society demanded an apology from Lin.
"We ask Councilwoman Lin to correct her mistake immediately and offer a written apology," the group said in a statement.
"We hope the media will reject this story because it is not only boring but also wrong," it said.
In response to the group's denial, Lin said that the signature on the boxes looked identical to the organization's logo and denied having made groundless accusations.
"Who would want to throw accusations at the group?" she said.
"I am calling on the group to accept responsibility for what it did," she said.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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