Five months into his term and against a backdrop of a series of scandals implicating the city’s build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday vowed to create a honest corporate culture, saying that Taiwanese politics have been fraught with dishonesty and escapism, describing them as deep-rooted practices that are difficult to replace with honesty and mutual trust.
At a BOT system evaluation conference sponsored by the city government, Ko called political integrity into question and referred to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign funding.
“Ma campaigned to be [Taipei] mayor twice and the president twice. Was his [real] campaign funding the same as what he submitted to the Control Yuan? How was the difference [between the real and the nominal campaign funding] resolved?” Ko asked.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The fundamental problem in Taiwanese politics lies in dishonesty and escapism, which are further complicated by the entanglement between politics and business, Ko said.
No one in Taiwan dares to say: “The emperor has no clothes,” Ko said.
Problems remain when no one dares to deal with them honestly, Ko said.
“Facing the problem is the first step to solution,” he said.
Several BOT projects launched under the city administrations of Ma and former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) have been enveloped in scandals since Ko took office and been referred to the city’s Clean Government Commission for investigation, including the Syntrend Creative Park (三創園區) project, the Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋), the Taipei New Horizon (臺北文創) complex and the MeHAS City (美河市) residential project.
Ko said that he would build a trustworthy government in which civil servants can confidently enforce the law.
He said many have said that it is imperative to increase income sources in addition to eradicating corruption, but they are two sides of the same coin.
The tuition for cardiac surgeons is more expensive than those in other disciplines, because the surgeons hold people’s precious lives in their hands, Ko said.
Society is also a precious entity that we have to earn at a high price, which is paid in social anxiety, and which — without proper care and administration — would accumulate into huge social costs instead of social assets, Ko said.
The city must re-evaluate the BOT system and seek to optimally utilize it, Ko said.
The discussions at yesterday’s conference were to be made public online to allow residents the chance to express their concerns, on which the government would base its policy adjustments, Ko said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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