Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reaffirmed his good relationship with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after only one DPP Taipei city councilor attended a Lunar New Year greeting event in the morning.
As officials returned to work yesterday, Ko attended the routine event at the Taipei City Council.
“The council has helped the city government a lot over the past three years, and the councilors’ supervision is a reminder for the government to make improvements,” Ko said, adding that city councilors know what Taipei’s residents need more than the government does, so he has asked all departments to take the councilors’ criticism as suggestions for improvement.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“We will this year continue to maintain this attitude, to consider the councilors’ suggestions and realize them,” Ko said. “They are the source of information for the city government’s improvement.”
However, as Taipei City Councilor Wang Wei-chung (王威中) was the only DPP councilor to attend the event this year, Ko was asked whether it reflected his relationship with the party.
“Maybe everyone is still enjoying the holiday,” Ko said. “I think some might still be on vacation in other nations ... and really good friends tend to not meet each other on public occasions.”
Asked again whether he is on good terms with the DPP, he said: “Very good.”
Asked about negative comments on a Lunar New Year’s greeting video featuring Ko and DPP Taipei City Councilor Lin Shih-tsung (林世宗) posted on Facebook last week, Ko said there is still a long way to go before the elections, and usually only people with opposing views will leave comments.
Asked whether he thinks the DPP and pan-green supporters would eventually appear and whether he discussed the issue with DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) over the holiday, the mayor said that integration takes time and that he has not spoken with Hung about it over the past five days, but might later.
Asked about the Taipei mayoral election, Hung said there are many possibilities in politics and that the DPP does not have to limit itself to the idea of cooperating with Ko.
“Of course, I cannot tell you,” Hung said, when asked about alternatives.
As Ko had made a remark about “choosing the lesser of two evils,” referring to cooperating with the DPP this year, Hung said the choice should be between “the better of two good options.”
Imagination is needed in politics so that innovative models can be created, such as an earlier “coalition of opposition parties,” Hung said.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) is a hardworking person and has always had progressive and constructive ideas that could benefit the city’s overall development, he added.
Additional reporting by Su Fang-ho
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