National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), a member of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) private medical team, on Saturday called on the government to “let Chen go home,” saying that the incarcerated Chen’s condition is deteriorating.
Ko, who plans to run as an independent in the upcoming Taipei mayoral election, issued the call at an event organized by the Ketagalan Foundation, which was founded by Chen.
Ko said that the former president, who is serving a 20-year sentence for corruption at a prison in Greater Taichung, has to wear adult diapers due to urinary incontinence.
The physician had previously warned the government about health complications that Chen was suffering after sustaining brain damage and has urged President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to commute Chen’s sentence to house arrest because his condition is unlikely to improve if he remains in prison.
Chen’s case is one of medical human rights, Ko said at the event, adding that removing the former president from jail would also benefit social harmony and reduce divisions over the issue.
Ko reiterated that all Chen was asking for was a fair trial, not amnesty or medical parole, and that he should not have been treated differently by the judiciary because he was once president.
Ko’s remarks came as he is waiting to see if his bid to become the “pan-green camp’s candidate” in the Taipei election will succeed.
Ko has been leading all pan-green camp aspirants in public opinion polls as an independent, but is awaiting a final “integration” with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) contenders, after he and the party reached a consensus that divisions in the pan-green camp would guarantee an easy victory for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文).
The DPP has decided on a two-stage mechanism to pick a candidate to represent the pan-green camp that involves four DPP members competing in the first phase of the process in a public opinion poll that could be conducted this week, with the winner then pitted against Ko in stage two.
The four DPP aspirants are former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and DPP lawmakers Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) and Pasuya Yao (姚文智).
Both Koo and Yao have claimed that they lead the four DPP contenders in support rates.
According to Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬), director of the DPP’s Department of Organization, the first stage is to be completed before May 14 and the second phase within a month, which means that the pan-green camp’s candidate will likely be announced in the middle of next month.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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