Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the government should not make him change the name of the political party he plans to form if it is not illegal.
He made the remark on the sidelines of a visit to Miaoli County when asked about the Ministry of the Interior having received complaints about the Chinese name of Ko’s new party.
Local media reported on Wednesday night that documents submitted by Ko to the ministry showed that he was planning to form a new political party on Tuesday next week. The party’s Chinese-language name (台灣民眾黨) roughly translates to “Taiwan people’s party.”
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times
Ko confirmed the plan at a news conference on Thursday morning.
Ko’s new party shares the same Chinese name as a party founded in 1927 by physician and social activist Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), who Ko has on several occasions said is someone he looks up to.
Ko has said he wants to complete Chiang’s unfilled wishes by changing Taiwan’s political culture.
However, Chiang Li-jung (蔣理容), the deputy executive director of the Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation and Chiang Wei-shui’s grandniece, wrote on Facebook that although everyone has the freedom to form a party in a democracy, she thinks Ko, who was a physician like her granduncle, might be using his name as a disguise for other purposes.
She urged people to examine Ko’s values and whether he really embodies the spirit of her granduncle, saying that he did not pander to or succumb to the authorities during the Japanese colonial era.
“Taiwan is the Taiwanese people’s Taiwan,” she wrote, adding that it was a remark her granduncle had often made, in addition to his famous quote: “Citizens must be united, as unity brings strength.”
She hopes anyone who claims to be his successor bears that in mind, Chiang Li-jung said.
The foundation also issued a statement asking Ko to reconsider the name of his party.
Ko yesterday said that the Democratic Progressive Party faced obstruction from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) when it was formed more than 30 years ago, and after the three decades it took to achieve democracy, his new party should not be boycotted.
“As long as it is not illegal, they should not use any other reasons to block it,” he said.
Separately yesterday, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that people have the freedom to form political parties, and his ministry would follow the law when reviewing Ko’s application.
Additional reporting by Huang Hsin-po
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS