The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday stepped up its criticism of Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) for resting at home on the afternoon when Typhoon Fanapi flooded the city on Sept. 19, seeking to capitalize on the opportunity to boost support for its Kaohsiung mayoral candidate in the November election.
Speaking at the weekly Central Standing Committee meeting, which was held in Kaohsiung yesterday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), said the public’s needs should be the top priority of the heads of local governments, as well as making the city safer, wealthier and more beautiful. He lauded the KMT’s Greater -Kaohsiung City mayoral candidate Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), saying she would be able to accomplish such tasks.
“We must win the battle in Kaohsiung this time. Typhoon Fanapi caused serious damage in -Kaohsiung and a head of local government must have the ability to take care of local residents,” he said.
Huang presented a report on how the drainage system in the city could be improved to prevent flooding in the future, while holding the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) responsible for the flooding because of its approval of land development projects.
Kaohsiung City was one of the areas hardest hit by the typhoon, with more than 1,700 households and 600 vehicles in four of its 11 districts inundated.
Chen, who has been enjoying great popularity in the city, faces a political crisis after admitting on Tuesday that she spent some time resting at home that afternoon, -reversing previous claims by her city administration that she had been out on an inspection.
KMT Secretary-General King -P-u-tsung (金溥聰) said the -Kaohsiung City Government should pinpoint the administrative responsibility after the failure of Chen and other top officials in their failure to handle the situation on the typhoon day.
“Before discussing her political responsibility, I think Chen Chu should focus on the administrative responsibilities of her and her staff,” he said.
When asked to comment on Kaohsiung’s election, King said the KMT was working hard to boost Huang’s support rate and the election outcome would not be affected unless Huang gained more support than Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), who withdrew from the DPP to run as an independent.
Chen still topped recent polls, while Huang’s support rate, although climbing, remained the lowest among the three candidates, he said.
On Tuesday, Ma was quoted by KMT spokesperson Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) as saying during a closed-door meeting that it was “beyond comprehension” that any in government ignored the flood prevention and drainage project and that some had even shirked the responsibility.
Ma said the flooding in -Kaohsiung City would not have been this serious had the city helped families build more flood prevention gates in their homes.
Ma said he learned many lessons when he was Taipei mayor as the capital city was flooded several times on his watch. Many car owners suffered great losses when the basement of their apartment building where they parked their cars was flooded, he said.
Ma said the central government has offered funding to families wishing to build flood prevention gates for their homes since August last year when Typhoon Morakot wreacked havoc in southern and eastern Taiwan. Of the NT$1.5 billion (US$47.7 million), Ma said Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties spent NT$30 million, but -Kaohsiung City spent only NT$10 million out of NT$97 million. The three counties and cities were hit hard by Typhoon Fanapi.
“If [Kaohsiung City] had done a better job, the situation would not have been this bad,” Ma said. “We must take flood prevention seriously. If we can prevent flooding, we will suffer less losses.”
While Kaohsiung residents must pay half of the expenses and the government paid the other half, Ma said his administration had decided to offer full funding for flood prevention gates to help victims better cope with future flooding.
“I hope Kaohsiung residents will take advantage of this opportunity,” he said.
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
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
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