Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday accused Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) of engaging in a smear campaign, but urged voters to make their own judgment during the vote on Saturday.
Su said that from the moment he entered the race, he refrained from using emotional language or defaming his opponent, adding that the electorate could see clearly who was vulgar and who had engaged in smear campaigns.
Voters, he said, would use their ballots to make their own judgment at the ballot box, thus strenghtening Taiwan’s democracy, he said.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
“Voters can see clearly who it is that once said he wanted to run a high-quality election, but has gradually revealed his true colors and used vulgarity to distort facts or undermine the reputation of others,” Su said.
“If the premier is crude in his language, he is setting a very bad example for all public servants,” he said.
Su was referring to a statement made by Wu on Sunday night while stumping for Eric Chu (朱立倫), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate for Sinbei City — the soon-to-be-renamed Taipei County after it is upgraded to a special municipality following the elections.
Wu accused Su, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and -former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of being a “trio that had doomed Taiwan.”
After the KMT ran an advertisement in yesterday’s edition of some Chinese-language newspapers accusing Su and Tsai of failing to protest the unfair treatment Taiwanese athletes received at a taekwondo competition in Beijing in August 2006, Su yesterday said the electorate should have the wisdom to tell who was confusing truth and falsehood.
Su said what upset Taiwanese the most was a Council of Sports Affairs official who told them to “swallow” the decision after Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) was disqualified at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, on Wednesday.
Instead of trying to protect the rights of Taiwanese athletes, Su said the pan-blue camp used the incident for its political gain and he believed voters would see through this ploy.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) spokespersons urged Su to refrain from using “dirty tricks” to secure victory in Saturday’s elections.
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said the “319” shooting incident on the eve of the 2004 presidential election was a “classic” case of a DPP “dirty trick.” She urged the public to report suspicious cases by calling a hotline or writing an e-mail.
She also proposed revising the electoral code to annul the election of a candidate elected through “dirty tricks.”
Alex Fai (費鴻泰), another KMT legislator, urged DPP candidates not to play the “sympathy card,” referring to the eve of the Taipei County commissioner race in 1997 when then-DPP legislator Lu Hsiu-yi (盧修一) knelt on stage, despite being ill, to solicit votes for Su, the DPP candidate for the post. Su later won the election.
KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said whenever former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) is present, there are “dirty tricks.”
Hsieh passed on the skills to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who won the Kaohsiung mayoral election four years ago, the legislator said.
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