The delay to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign headquarters’ sixth youth camp was a result of its disorganization, one would-be participant said on Sunday.
The sixth “Democratic Election’s Great” youth camp event was scheduled to be held in Taipei on Saturday and Sunday to coincide with the birthday of Republic of China founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).
The event was planned to educate participants about Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), a formative figure in Taiwan’s colonial resistance movement against Japan who holds the title “Taiwanese Sun Yat-sen.”
However, a student named Arthur Wong, who enrolled in the camp, said he received a short message from the Ma campaign headquarters the day before the event saying that the event would be postponed by one week because of poor weather and the fact that some students were taking midterm exams.
Ma’s campaign headquarters spokesperson Yin Wei (殷瑋) said yesterday that campaign events, including the youth camp, were expected to hold seven rounds across the nation.
Yin said an average of 70 people applied to take part in each event.
Fifty people had applied to attend the sixth youth camp, Yin said, adding that a number of those applicants had called his office to request the event be postponed.
Yin said the youth camps, the KMT Youth League and the Institute on Policy Research and Development camps have been attended by more than 1,000 people and that the other symposiums held in Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市) attracted at least 60 and at most 150 attendees.
Yin said the youth camps are a success and they would continue to be held to raise youth participation in public matters as well as increase interaction with the younger generation.
However, Wong said that after telephoning the campaign headquarters he discovered the true reason the event was postponed was because it had not even received 25 applications of the allotted 60.
Wong said the camp program kept being altered, adding that when one female participant asked the campaign headquarters where they would be staying, she was told: “We can only tell you that it’s in Banciao District (板橋), [New Taipei City], but all other information is still classified.”
Wong said he and his friend signed up for the event because they had received confirmation that the chief executive of Ma’s re-election campaign, King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), would give a talk at the camp.
After the event was rescheduled, the speech was canceled, Wong said.
“Ma wishes to attract the support of first-time voters in this election, but after personally being involved with this event, I have seen the ridiculous and outrageous mistakes the Ma campaign office has made,” Wong said.
Using students’ midterm exams as a reason to postpone the event was ridiculous, as Ma once chatted with National University of Kaohsiung students the night before their midterms, Wong said, adding that the campaign office’s response to the female student’s inquiry was ludicrous.
“Ma says he has more than 200,000 fans on his Facebook page, but it is stunning that he could not even get 60 people to show up for his event,” Wong said.
Wong wrote about the event on his blog on Friday and received a lot of feedback from other netizens. One, named Andie Li, commented that the KMT’s youth vote would “dissolve like bubbles.”
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
RSS