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
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS