An apparent split between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has called into question which side DPP-affiliated Taipei officials would take after Taipei Department of Civil Affairs Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰) on Tuesday said in a statement that he chose Ko over the party.
Speaking on the City Council floor yesterday, Lan said he would be stumping for Ko, adding: “Remember to write ‘supporting Ko Wen-je’ as the reason for my dismissal from the party.”
Addressing the tension between himself and the DPP, Ko yesterday said that a person’s relationship with a political party is not the only or the ideal relationship that they would have over their lifetime.
Photo: Chou Yan-yu, Taipei Times
Ko said he was inaccurately quoted by the media on Tuesday.
“I said: ‘Individuals outweigh factions. Factions outweigh political parties. Political parties outweigh the nation. This is not the kind of society Taiwan built,’” Ko said, adding that media reports did not include the last sentence.
When asked if he thinks he was intentionally left out of the media limelight during an event yesterday with Premier William Lai (賴清德) and DPP Taipei mayoral nominee Pasuya Yao (姚文智), Ko said he did not want to be jostled about.
“If I wanted to talk with the premier, I could have done so at the Executive Yuan instead of chatting with him here,” Ko said.
Addressing Yao’s criticism that he treated former Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp (台北農產公司) general manager Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and its current general manager, Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧), differently, Ko said that he was only concerned with justice.
Neither of them are bad people, Ko said, adding that any difference in treatment was simply a microcosm of the differences in Taiwanese political ideologies.
Yao said with regard to Lan’s comment that if he were to be dismissed, it would be recorded as “assisting with electoral affairs in contravention of party policy” and not that he was a supporter of Ko.
“The party’s stance is clear — the upcoming election should not affect the continued implementation of municipal policies and affairs,” Yao said.
The party’s regulations are simply that party members should not stump or assist in electoral affairs for others outside of the party during an election, Yao said.
The party would respect Lan’s decision to stay at his post to help improve the city, he added.
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