Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday told New Power Party legislative candidate Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) that it is more important to adhere to her beliefs than to propose policies in the run-up to next year’s legislative election.
Ko made the remark while attending a forum at Hung’s campaign office in Taichung.
‘white force’
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
Saying that he was at one point a fan of Hung, Ko called on the public to express their support for the “white force” — political novices — to change Taiwan for the better.
Ko praised Hung for managing to remain collected in facing challenges after being confronted with the death of her brother, army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘).
He said that Hung Tzu-yung played a “critical role in a critical moment in Taiwan’s history,” which changed Taiwan’s fate.
Hung Chung-chiu, whose death sparked widespread public outcry leading to a massive demonstration, died after his superiors at the army’s 542nd Brigade subjected him to punishment exercises for bringing a cellphone onto a military base.
“Without the Hung Chung-chiu incident and the Sunflower movement, there would not have been a Ko Wen-je election campaign,” Ko said.
accidental politicians
Saying that both he and Hung Tzu-yung entered politics by accident, Ko added that he had often wondered what role he would assume in last year’s Taipei mayoral election and how he was going to influence Taiwan.
“Policies are bound to change with the changing of times, so it is more important to hold on to one’s beliefs than to policies,” he said.
Hung said that the upcoming legislative election was not her own fight, but one that will decide whether the nation is to change for the better, or for the worse.
She said that she must let go of her pain and stick to her beliefs to bring about change.
“One sees hope because she persists, not the other way around,” she said.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS