Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) yesterday reiterated his vow not to attend city council meetings until the investigation into the council speaker election is wrapped up, as he urged the judiciary to put its full efforts into finding the truth
Lai said he would stick to his boycott whether or not Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) was detained by prosecutors.
Tainan prosecutors yesterday asked the court for permission to detain Lee, one day after he was caught at Tainan Airport trying to leave the country for China.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“There is obviously something fishy going on, given that the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] was able to secure 29 votes to win the speakership even though it has just 16 seats on the council,” Lai said.
“What the prosecutor is doing today should not surprise anyone,” he said, referring to the detention request.
“I hereby call on the judiciary to find the truth as soon as possible, and restore justice and dignity to Tainan,” the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayor said at a book launch in Taipei.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“I said that I will not attend council meetings until the case is cleared, so I will not attend the meetings whether Lee is detained or if he is indicted,” Lai said.
He called on KMT Chairman Eric Chu to expand upon his earlier comments that Lee is under investigation because the judiciary has been manipulated.
Lai said that he had never tried to intervene in the case.
“I am just a local government head. The central government is not in the hands of the DPP either,” he said.
Lai made the remarks at an event to mark the release of his book Seeing the Future (看見未來), which describes his experiences in city governance and his ideas over the past four years.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who attended the book launch, said that since Lai and he are both doctors-turned-politicians, he has much to learn from Lai.
“For example, I should learn more about how to answer questions [from the media] to prevent creating controversies,” Ko said. “Maybe I should go to Tainan for a day and have Lai give me a private lesson.”
As Lai’s supporters have nicknamed him “Lai the Immortal,” Ko said that after reading the book he realized that Lai is not an immortal with magical powers, but is “a hard worker who makes decisions after taking everything into consideration.”
“This is something I need to learn from him as well,” the Taipei mayor said.
Former Taiwan Society president Wu Shu-min (吳樹民) encouraged Lai to join the DPP’s primary for next year’s presidential election even though Lai on Saturday ruled out doing so.
“Of course solidarity is important for the DPP, but solidarity would not push the DPP forward. Progress is only possible in a democracy when there is competition,” Wu said. “Therefore, I would like to urge Mayor Lai to think twice.”
While Lai said that he would keep his promise to the people of Tainan and complete his second term, “the people of Tainan do not necessarily think it is necessary. As a Tainan resident, I would be very happy if our mayor becomes president,” Wu said.
Speaking to reporters after the book launch, Lai thanked Wu for his support, but insisted that he would stay in Tainan.
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:
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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