Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that he would only deliver on his threat to rally support for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) strongly criticized him.
In an online political talk show that aired on the weekend, a pundit asked Ko what he would do if the DPP harshly criticized him in the final days of campaigning before the election on Jan. 11.
“I will tell everyone to support Han Kuo-yu in the last second,” Ko said. “The DPP will be afraid of this.”
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Han is the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate. He is running against President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the DPP, and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party said that supporting Han is similar to giving up Taiwan’s future to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) partner, and Ko can be considered an unscrupulous politician for using Taiwanese’s future as a bargaining chip for political gains, online news outlet Storm Media (風傳媒) said yesterday.
DPP legislator-at-large nominee Fan Yun (范雲), a National Taiwan University sociology professor, said on Facebook: “Mayor Ko, there should be a bottom line to manipulating democracy.”
“Electing the president is the most important thing in a democratic nation, and the people decide which direction the nation will go, as well as who will lead us in that direction,” she wrote.
“However, Mayor Ko, you do not care about Taiwan at all, but only your political future. Are you using the presidential election as your revenge tool?” she added.
People know that their votes count, and Ko’s supporters can decide for themselves and choose not to follow his orders, Fan said.
On the sidelines of a news conference on housing justice at Taipei City Hall yesterday, Ko said he is used to being criticized by DPP members, so “there is nothing to it, sometimes we just threaten each other.”
Asked about a plan by the KMT and PFP caucuses to file for a constitutional interpretation for the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法), Ko said, laughing: “I have always said that it is better not to have this kind of opposition parties, because it is so humiliating that they can only throw water balloons and ask for constitutional interpretations.”
“The opposition parties should be able to say clearly what they think is wrong about the proposed bill,” he said. “They want to ask for a constitutional interpretation? They might as well get down on their knees and surrender.”
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