Print

Mail

wiki links

Presidential election 2008: 16 days to go: Hsieh touts performance as mayor of Kaohsiung

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday compared his term as mayor of Kaohsiung with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) Taipei mayorship, saying that his track record outshone Ma's.

"I don't have as much money to rebut their groundless accusations," Hsieh said. "Ma uses his party's stolen assets as a dye and insists on dying the white horses black and the black horses white."

Hsieh made the remarks in Taichung yesterday morning in response to newspaper ads run by Ma's campaign team attacking Hsieh over his performance as Kaohsiung mayor.

Citing opinion polls conducted by Global Views magazine, Hsieh said Ma's approval rating was 75 percent in 1994, when he took over as Taipei mayor from his predecessor, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). The figure was the highest in the country for a city or county head at the time. But by the time Ma left office, his ranking had dropped to No. 8.

By comparison, Hsieh said, although his own approval rating was 27 percent -- the nation's lowest -- when he was elected mayor of Kaohsiung, he won over residents by doing a good job, pulling his ranking to the very top by the time he left office, according to CommonWealth magazine's figures.

Hsieh said a TVBS poll placed his popularity at 78 percent when he was appointed premier in 2005, while Ma's popularity rating was 67 percent. Another poll, conducted by ETTV, put his popularity rating at 81.3 percent and Ma's at 73.7 percent, Hsieh said.

During his stint as Kaohsiung mayor, Hsieh said, the city's population increased by 35,000 people. During Ma's term as Taipei mayor, the city's population decreased by 25,000 people.

"Ma says Taipei City is a paradise," Hsieh said. "If it's a paradise, why don't people want to stay?"

Hsieh also said the average Taipei City household's disposable income had decreased by NT$15,000 when Ma completed his second term in 2006. Figures from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics show that Taipei City incomes shrank, he said.
This story has been viewed 1477 times.