Countering criticism leveled at several projects undertaken during his administration, former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday accused Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and his team of using “defamatory” tactics to hide their “ignorance” of municipal issues.
“Personally I found [the tactics] unbearable,” Hau, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, said on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony for KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) at party headquarters.
Less than one month since Ko, who ran as an independent, was sworn in on Dec. 25, he has repeatedly cast doubt on the competence of the former Hau administration after examining several projects, including the Shezidao (社子島) development project, the Taipei Dome, the Taipei New Horizon (臺北文創) building, the MeHAS City (美河市) residential project, the Taipei Twin Towers (雙子星) and the athletes’ village for the 2017 World University Games.
Hau said the Ko administration had only revealed “half of the information” about these projects and given them a political spin to mislead the public.
The Ko administration should make all information public, which the city government has maintained for public scrutiny, Hau said.
All major development projects carried out under his administration were in strict compliance with statutory procedures and subject to supervision by the city government’s ethics department, he added.
“Absolutely [we] can withstand scrutiny,” he said.
The elections are over and the Ko administration should demonstrate how it can effectively govern the city, not by trampling on the previous administration to hide its ignorance of municipal issues, Hau said.
Hau said that he respected the Ko administration’s efforts to govern the city and wished it all the best, but he could no longer stand the criticism.
Asked whether he thought the Ko administration was on a “political witch-hunt,” Hau said he would leave it to the public to judge.
In response to Hau’s criticism, Ko said: “If you had openly and transparently made all documentation public when you were in office, there would not be any of this controversy.”
Ko said the city government would continue “putting out fires” left by the previous administration.
He has previously promised to open all documents related to corruption cases to inspection by city councilors.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
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