The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for Hsinchu County Commissioner Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳) yesterday offered an apology over comments he made on Saturday.
Chiu, however, said he was apologizing not for stoking ethnic tension, but rather for “some people’s distortion of his remarks” on the matter.
Chiu said he was sorry that some people “with ulterior motives” had misinterpreted what he said. He also apologized to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), whom he said was “deeply disturbed” by what happened.
Chiu said during the KMT’s Central Standing Committee meeting in Hsinchu on Saturday that because the county has a large population of Hakka, voters should support a Hakka candidate and not elect a candidate from a different ethnic group. Ma, who was present, remained quiet.
TENSION
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) later accused Chiu of inciting ethnic tension.
Former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) berated Ma for failing to criticize Chiu. He asked Ma to apologize and ensure that Chiu corrected his ways. He also said that Ma was not qualified to be president if he manipulated ethnic issues in a local election.
Chiu said yesterday that there were no ethnic problems in Hsinchu County and that Su’s motives for publicizing the matter were suspicious. He also said that his remark was taken out of context and that what he said next was not quoted.
“I said: ‘Mr President, what I said just now was not an attempt to incite ethnic tension,’” Chiu said.
“I was simply saying that [as] a member of the Hakka community, [I am] very glad to run for Hsinchu County commissioner,” he said.
MANIPULATION
Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, said yesterday that candidates must not use elections to manipulate ethnic issues and that he always believed those who do so will never gain voters’ support.
“It is my belief that democratic elections are to elect the most capable candidates possible and to serve the people, not to capitalize on ethnic issues for personal gain,” he said. “The electorate is mature enough to tell who employs such devices and those who do will never get the support of voters.”
Ma made the remarks during a provisional press conference at Songshan Military Airport in Taipei yesterday morning after returning from Kaohsiung, where he inspected disaster areas following Typhoon Morakot.
The press conference was brief and Ma did not make any statement before taking one question from reporters.
Later yesterday, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that Ma had spoken at the airport to show he took the matter seriously. It was inappropriate for the president to comment on the matter in a disaster area, he said.
‘BAD GAMBIT’
“It requires a joint effort to protect Taiwan’s democratic politics,” he said.
“Seeking electoral victory by manipulating ethnic issues is a bad and dangerous gambit,” Wang said.
The spokesman said that Ma had responded to the incident not only in his capacity as KMT chairman, but also as president.
Asked why Ma did not stop Chiu when he made the remark, Wang said Ma might “have had too much on his mind” and that he had a tight schedule, meaning that they could only deal with it afterwards.
Describing Chiu’s remark as “a slip of the tongue,” a presidential office employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Chiu should apologize.
HARMONY
At a different setting yesterday morning, KMT Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) said the party and Chiu fully support ethnic harmony and that Chiu was upset with himself after making such a remark.
A poll released by the Chinese-language Global Views magazine (遠見) yesterday showed that Chiu was trailing Chang Pi-chin (張碧琴), who left the KMT to run as an independent.
Previous polls conducted by the magazine also showed that KMT candidates were losing in Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Yilan and Hualien.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
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