Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) yesterday made taunting remarks about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), drawing criticism from DPP politicians.
“One party could win the Tainan mayoral election next year even if its candidate is a watermelon,” Lin said, commenting on the city’s established political landscape.
Tainan is regarded as a DPP stronghold; its mayor, William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP, in 2014 won a second term by a landslide and is slated to step down next year after eight years at the helm.
Photo: Chiu Hao-tang, Taipei Times
Several DPP lawmakers from Tainan constituencies have expressed their intentions to run in next year’s mayoral election.
Speaking yesterday at the opening of the New Power Party’s (NPP) Tainan headquarters, Lin said: “As people in Tainan are unusually conservative in politics, the DPP could win the mayoral election next year even if it promotes a watermelon as its candidate.”
As for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), its members could do no more than teach Hoklo language (commonly known as Taiwanese) or don traditional costumes, which was “really upsetting,” Lin said in a jab at KMT Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介).
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that Lin’s comments were contemptuous and humiliating to Tainan residents.
The party’s procedure for primaries in the run-up to the mayoral election is strict, he added, questioning whether the NPP’s candidate selection would not be achieved through backroom deals.
Lai said Tainan was also dubbed a "holy land for democracy" and this reputation was the result of hard work by many of his political predecessors, which the younger generations should respect.
DPP lawmakers Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津) and Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) also said support for the DPP’s ideals in Tainan was a result of the collective hard work put in by “democracy fighters.”
Former deputy Tainan mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左), now director of the DPP’s Tainan chapter, said he hoped Lin Fei-fan’s comments were nothing more than a slip of the tongue.
Netizens were not so lenient toward Lin Fei-fan’s remarks, with some writing that "social movements were like stepping stones for Lin," while others said Lin himself could be described as a cucumber — delicate and fragile.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS