Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that he would listen first to what other presidential aspirants have to say, but would also start thinking seriously about his next step.
Ko made the comments after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday morning announced that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has won its presidential primary.
An independent who is widely believed to be eyeing the nation’s top office, Ko has frequently been asked when he would make a decision to run or whether he would team up with a political party.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Last week, he said that he still has time to ponder over the issue, as the last day for presidential candidate registration is on Sept 17. The election is to be held on Jan. 11 next year.
Asked whether Han’s victory would affect his decision to run for president, Ko said: “I have not really thought about it, but now I will have to seriously think about it.”
He said his background as an emergency room surgeon has taught him that he must first check a patient’s condition, before deciding on the proper surgical procedure, so he would answer the question when he has finished thinking about it.
For starters, he wanted to hear first what other KMT presidential aspirants have to say about the primary results, then decide how to respond to the situation, Ko said.
“Taiwan’s general interest, the people’s maximum well-being, the long-term development of Taiwan ... we have to start thinking about these as events occur,” he said.
“As rational human beings, we can make rational predictions, so people have to starting thinking about what would happen if President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continues as president or if they choose Han,” Ko said, adding that people have to think about whether the information the candidates provide is reasonable.
“I have never held a parochial point of view,” Ko said. “Politics should be a pragmatic part of people’s everyday lives; politics must be executable. Chanting slogans is useless, because ideas must be executable.”
“The problem with Taiwan now is we have too many slogans, but are lacking in procedures to execute them,” he said.
When people keep on talking about sovereignty and national consciousness, but government efficiency in implementing the budget is only 66 percent, then the policy plans are all a sham, because they cannot be executed, he added.
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學:兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
‘NOT COLD ENOUGH’: Schools are disregarding Premier Su Tseng-chang’s instruction that students may wear out-of-uniform clothing to stay warm, an association said An investigative report revealed that 72.5 percent of the nation’s senior-high schools and 95.6 percent of junior-high schools punish students for wearing unapproved winter clothes in contravention of educational guidelines, lawmakers and student rights advocates said yesterday. Speaking at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy said there is an endemic disregard for the Ministry of Education’s regulations and that private schools are more likely to contravene ministry rules. The report is a compilation of 2,856 student reports about dress code reinforcement at 425 high schools and vocational high schools, the association said. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌)
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
DISSATISFACTION? If the referendums collect more than 700,000 signatures each, they would have gotten the most signatures in the shortest time, the party said The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two referendum petitions — one on banning the importation of pork with traces of ractopamine and the other on holding referendums on the same day as national elections — had as of Thursday gathered 691,398 and 674,497 signatures respectively, the party said yesterday. If the petitions collect more than 700,000 signatures apiece, they would have garnered the most signatures in the shortest time since the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was amended in 2017, party officials said. The KMT proposed the “anti-ractopamine pork” or “food safety” referendum just days after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement on Aug. 28 last