Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has found himself at the center of another controversy after saying that the murder of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany was the “greatest publicity” for Jews internationally.
He made the remark on Wednesday while speaking to reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after returning from an official four-day visit to Israel, where he visited Yad Vashem — Israel’s official Holocaust memorial.
He had been invited by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend the 33rd International Mayors’ Conference there.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of Taipei City Government
Before embarking on a one-day bicycle journey from Taipei to Kaohsiung yesterday, Ko was asked by reporters if he believed he had misspoken.
“How were [the comments] misspoken?” he replied.
Israelis take the Holocaust very seriously, he said.
“I asked myself: ‘Why is Israel so united?’ It is because historically, there was a period of much pain,” Ko said, referring to Adolf Hitler’s 12-year reign over Germany from 1933 to 1945.
“I later discovered that Israelis treat this incident as an important [opportunity for] international education or international publicity,” he said.
“That is also an important reason why Israelis worldwide are so united [in their] cooperation,” he added.
Taiwan Radical Wings’ Taipei office yesterday criticized Ko for the comments.
In 1947, from Feb. 28 through the end of March, many people in Taiwan were killed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, the office said on Facebook.
Seventy-two years later, politicians “as cold-blooded [and] ignorant as [Ko],” as well as ones who are “unremorseful” and “insist on opposing transitional justice” still exist in Taiwan, it said.
Even today, the entire truth about the 228 Incident is unknown and none of the perpetrators have been investigated, it added.
The 228 Incident refers to protesters being shot by security personnel of the then-KMT regime at the Governor-General’s Office in Taipei (now the Executive Yuan building) on Feb. 28, 1947.
That escalated into widespread anti-government protests, which where suppressed in a brutal crackdown, followed by the imposition of martial law, a period now known as the White Terror.
Taiwan Radical Wings said that it mourns the martyrs who were innocently sacrificed.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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