Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that preparing oneself to be president is every citizen’s obligation, but running for the office is a right, not an obligation.
Ko, an independent, made the remarks in response to questions about his parents’ comments on whether he intends to run in next year’s presidential election.
Local media outlets on Monday asked Ko’s parents about their son’s plans when they visited Chengan Temple (奠安宮) in Changhua County’s Beidou Township (北斗).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Ko is preparing and will run for president if the opportunity arises, said Ko’s mother, Ho Jui-ying (何瑞英), but added that he has not yet made a decision.
Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), said his son is free to choose what he wants to do, but he thinks that it would be better if he were to continue being a doctor and saving lives.
“Preparing to be the president is a citizen’s obligation. However, running for president is not an obligation, but a right,” Ko Wen-je told reporters in Taipei yesterday.
He said that lobbyists for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had been swinging between persuading and dissuading him to run.
He said that was because the DPP’s poll results have been swinging, too, but added that fast-changing public opinion in Taiwan is not what a stable society should have.
He was also asked about DPP Taipei City Councilor Kao Chia-yu’s (高嘉瑜) remark that he was hesitant to announce his presidential bid because he cannot overcome his “inner demons” telling him that he should not be a “runaway mayor,” that is, running for president when his term as mayor has not ended.
“The election landscape in Taiwan is different from that of normal countries... It is too strange, but what can we do if Taiwan is not a normal country?” Ko Wen-je said.
“Nonetheless, even in abnormal times, we should try our best to make it normal,” he added.
Asked to confirm Kao’s remark that she had turned down his offer to become Taipei deputy mayor, Ko Wen-je said he had asked her before, but added that the issue needed more serious consideration.
“The reason why presidents elected after 2000 have not done a good job is because they lack training,” he said.
Even though he considers himself smart and hardworking, it still took him two years to familiarize himself with a mayor’s job, he said.
It is “quite scary” if a person with no experience at all is elected to an important national post, he added.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS