President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday visited Taipei’s Longshan Temple to distribute more of his “Taiwan talismans” to supporters as he seeks to counter Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “three little pigs” campaign.
Swamped by supporters of his re-election bid at the historical temple in Wanhua District (萬華), Ma performed a temple ritual by holding the talismans above a smoking incense burner, which symbolized the passing of the gods’ blessing to the talismans, and then distributed 1,000 talismans to people waiting in line.
Speaking to supporters and visitors at the temple, Ma said bringing peace and good fortune to the nation remained his top priority, and the talismans reflected his efforts to protect the people.
Photo: CNA
“Living safe and well is a blessing every family hopes for, and the government’s effort on solving people’s problems is the best way to bring them safety and fortune,” he said.
Several hundred of supporters chanted “Ma Ying-jeou, tong-suan (‘get elected’ in Hoklo, which also known as Taiwanese)” while Ma was handing out the talismans.
The temple has long been a major venue for pan-green politicians because Wanhua is a pan-green stronghold. Outside the temple, a group of pan-green supporters voiced their support for Tsai, giving the thumbs down as Ma left.
The president later distributed about 5,000 talismans to supporters in Taitung County as he launched his campaign headquarters in that county.
The talismans are red, with Chinese characters for “Taiwan Peace” written on them. Ma’s re-election campaign office designed them as a campaign souvenir after Ma received a talisman from a Greater Taichung resident during his homestay there last Saturday.
Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), deputy executive director of Ma’s campaign, said the campaign office has begun mass production of the talismans because of their popularity among pan-blue supporters, and the camp will distribute a total of 100,000.
While many see the talisman handouts as a way to counter Tsai’s “three little pigs” piggy banks promotion, Lo said the idea was to give blessings to the people.
“The talisman also serves as a reminder for the government to protect the people,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continued to slam Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) of the DPP for helping Tsai’s campaign by allowing her campaign merchandise to be stored in the county government building.
KMT spokesperson Lai Su-ju (賴素如) said the discovery of Tsai campaign merchandise, including T-shirts and hats, proved that Chang had abused public resources and failed to maintain administrative neutrality.
Lai urged Chang and the DPP to explain the matter.
On Thursday Chang released a statement saying it had been “extremely inappropriate” to store the merchandise in the building.
Offering an apology when she was questioned by county councilors, Chang said she has ordered the items removed and would refer the case to the county government’s ethics office for investigation.
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