Legislators in Taipei are “mostly old people” who spend one-third of their time using their influence on behalf of voters, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Sunday.
Ko made the remarks at a press conference held by New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidate Freddy Lim (林昶佐) to promote Lim’s new book.
Ko said that there are “too many old people” among the current crop of legislators in Taipei.
The mayor said that during his time as director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Traumatology, he often encountered lawmakers attempting to help supporters skip waiting periods to secure beds.
Ko said that this practice is unnecessary in advanced countries and its prevalence indicates that there are problems in the nation’s systems.
Ko said lawmakers tout “good services for voters” and “loyal supporters,” with such self-promotion downgrading legislators — who address issues at a national level — to the level of a borough warden.
Taiwanese politics lacks “elements of inventiveness,” he said.
He told the audience a story about the legislative election.
“A reporter once asked my opinion on [President] Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaigning for legislative candidates. I said: Those candidates lead their opponents by a wide margin, so they would not worry about it. If they were only up by 5 percentage points, they probably would not have the audacity to ask Ma to endorse them,” Ko said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said that Ko, 56, is too old to be a mayor.
“A 55-year-old is too old to be a physician. An obsolete physician serving as Taipei mayor is a disaster for Taipei residents,” Tsai said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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