Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has claimed that a potential collaboration with the Democratic Progressive Party for the mayoral election fell through because President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is being controlled by certain members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) said yesterday.
Sources said that at a meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Tuesday last week, Ko said that Tsai originally wanted to collaborate with him in the November mayoral election, but that she is now being controlled by the “empress,” referring to Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊), and the “prince,” referring to the DPP’s former New Tide faction, the report said.
Ko also told Wang that if he did not win re-election, he would return to work as a doctor.
Asked about his meeting with Wang, Ko yesterday said: “I met with former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng last week mainly to discuss the Taiwan Healthcare+ EXPO that is to be held at the end of the year.”
He said he also discussed political history with Wang, whom he described as a “living dictionary of the Republic of China’s [ROC] modern political history.”
The report in the Liberty Times was “a bit exaggerated,” as he and Wang just had a private conversation, he said.
Asked whether he made the comments about Tsai, Ko said: “I do not want to tell you.”
He added that he does not know if Tsai still supports him, but he would “cross that bridge” when he comes to it.
Each political party has its own factions, and that is not something he can deal with, Ko said.
Asked why a number of former Taipei City Government officials are publicly criticizing him, Ko said that former officials would not have left their posts if they had adapted to the administrative team’s operating style.
Wang also declined to talk about his conversation with Ko.
He said that they had a pleasant conversation and that Ko had asked him how he managed to deal with issues at the Legislative Yuan.
He said that he explained to Ko the importance of establishing personal credibility so that legislators believed that he would deliver on his promises and that they could work together based on mutual trust.
Wang added that Ko understands that he supports Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), and that he could not comment on whether Ko would return to being doctor if he loses the election.
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