Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Minister Kao Su-po (高思博) will be leaving the Cabinet amid allegations that he was reluctant to run for a legislative seat in the pan-green stronghold of Greater Tainan.
Speaking by telephone, Kao said Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who had asked to talk to him on Monday, had requested that he step down.
Kao is the second Cabinet member to submit his resignation this month, following National Youth Commission Minister Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) who resigned on Jan. 17, after outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) claimed she had refused to run for the same seat in the March 5 by-election.
After failing to convince Wang or Kao to run in the by-election, the KMT nominated Legislator-at-Large Chen Shu-huei (陳淑慧) to face the Democratic Progressive Party’s Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), the former Tainan mayor.
“Premier Wu expressed his wish that I step down, at a time when he is set to reshuffle the Cabinet. My superior wants those adjustments, so I had to listen,” Kao said.
A former legislator from Tainan, Kao said that while he had not decided whether to run in the legislative elections at the end of this year or early next year, he would campaign for Chen this year.
Kao said “it’s too early” to talk about the next legislative election before the by-election is held.
“If Chen loses the election, the KMT has to nominate another candidate, but if she wins, she should be the one to run in the next election,” Kao said.
Kao also doubles as a minister without portfolio.
Asked for comment on Kao’s decision, Wu said he respected Kao’s choice, adding that some people were hoping he would run again for a legislative seat.
Kao’s father, Kao Yu-jen (高育仁), said his son had decided to leave the Cabinet without complaint and that his family would do its best to campaign for Chen in the by-election.
The senior Kao, a former KMT lawmaker, said he told his son to make his own choices and not to let the party decide his future.
Kao Yu-jen said the KMT had no plan to cultivate young people like his son and lacked a strategy for building the party’s force in southern constituencies.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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