Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文), both leading Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians, yesterday condemned a protester who threw a shoe at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Monday, urging the public to express their opinions reasonably.
While addressing a commemoration of the White Terror victims in Taipei, Ma was confronted with a group of indignant victims who protested against what they said was the nation’s poor human rights record under the Ma administration. One person even threw a shoe at Ma and was blocked by the security.
Hau accused the protesters of setting a bad example and said such acts should not be encouraged.
“Everyone has the freedom and right to express opinions, but there are appropriate ways to do so. It is extremely impolite to [throw shoes] at the nation’s leader,” he said.
In addition to removing the protesters from the scene, Hau suggested that the police or the administration “take more actions” against what he described as inappropriate acts of protest.
Lien, son of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), echoed Hau’s comments and said such acts would not help solve the issues the protesters wanted to address.
“There are various ways in Taiwan to express opinions and people can voice their concerns in a rational way. There’s no need to throw things because it will not help solve problems,” he said.
Lien, serving as the deputy commissioner of the Taipei City Government’s Economic Development Commission, met with Hau yesterday in a regular meeting in Taipei City Hall.
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