Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Tuesday last week made a controversial remark, saying that he does not waste food at meals. His remark caused a stir on social media.
This is classic Ko, making a gaffe and not owning up to the mistake.
Pundits have commented on the definition of food waste, given deep analyses of people with a propensity for misspeaking and delved into food waste policy.
However, what is remarkable and disturbing is that Ko seems to be able to keep on making off-the-cuff remarks while not losing any support.
At a rally on July 16, a woman held a sign with a list of Ko’s sexist and misogynistic comments in silent protest, but was trolled and abused online, while Ko denied the accusations with the nonchalant comment: “What has that got to do with me?”
At the end of the month, the TPP’s English-language slogan “vote white, vote right” was attacked for having racist connotations.
The TPP hit back, saying that candidates surnamed White in the US would also use “vote White” as a slogan.
In August, to establish a female supporters’ group in Taipei, dancers in flight attendant outfits — dubbed “the stewardess support team” by organizers — performed at a campaign event. After the Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union accused the TPP of “sexualizing and objectifying female flight attendants” with the dance routine, Ko’s supporters hit back, saying that porn also objectifies women, but no one is making a fuss.
In September, Ko wrote in the preface of his comic book autobiography Keep Promise (漫畫柯文哲), that in Taiwan, comics are for children, and that they are rarely used as a means to discuss serious issues. Ko’s office has said that the book triggered debate because it was “misunderstood.”
Last month was uneventful, with Ko not making a single verbal blunder, but this month the same Ko that people know well returned to form.
Still, his supporters continued speaking up for him, saying that inedible things cannot be called “food waste.”
Ko’s slip-ups are almost a daily occurence, but it is disturbing that the gaffes, which at times touch upon gender and race, have not made a difference to his campaign.
Opinion polls in July did not give the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) any incentive to propose an alliance with the TPP, but it was begging at the door last month.
Despite his blunders, Ko is still considered a worthy opponent, enough to sit at the table with the more-than-century-old party.
Nonetheless, there is a pattern: Ko makes a gaffe; an uproar ensues; Ko denies the gaffe; his supporters speak up for him; and the controversy fizzles out without so much as a single apology.
Aside from the “vote white, vote right” slogan that the party pulled from its Web site for fear of offending the US, the TPP has never done any soul-searching, as it never suffers from Ko’s gaffes.
The more blunders Ko makes, the more popular he becomes.
The KMT is responsible to a degree for creating this situation. Even though the KMT has an open-minded faction that supports gender equality, it has never openly condemned Ko’s sexism and misogyny.
Indulgence has given birth to the haughty, egotistical opponent that the KMT has no choice but to bend its knee to today.
Nonetheless, a fair share of the responsibility falls on people who give him mindless support. Whenever politicians make a sexist remark, they should be condemned and compelled to apologize regardless of their political affiliation. If a person who makes a gaffe is not held to account by others on their team, it gives birth to a self-centered egotistical maniac like Ko.
Chang Yueh-han is an adjunct assistant professor at Shih Hsin University’s Department of Journalism.
Translated by Rita Wang
Chinese state-owned companies COSCO Shipping Corporation and China Merchants have a 30 percent stake in Kaohsiung Port’s Kao Ming Container Terminal (Terminal No. 6) and COSCO leases Berths 65 and 66. It is extremely dangerous to allow Chinese companies or state-owned companies to operate critical infrastructure. Deterrence theorists are familiar with the concepts of deterrence “by punishment” and “by denial.” Deterrence by punishment threatens an aggressor with prohibitive costs (like retaliation or sanctions) that outweigh the benefits of their action, while deterrence by denial aims to make an attack so difficult that it becomes pointless. Elbridge Colby, currently serving as the Under
Apart from the first arms sales approval for Taiwan since US President Donald Trump took office, last month also witnessed another milestone for Taiwan-US relations. Trump signed the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act into law on Tuesday. Its passing without objection in the US Senate underscores how bipartisan US support for Taiwan has evolved. The new law would further help normalize exchanges between Taiwanese and US government officials. We have already seen a flurry of visits to Washington earlier this summer, not only with Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), but also delegations led by National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu
Ho Ying-lu (何鷹鷺), a Chinese spouse who was a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee, on Wednesday last week resigned from the KMT, accusing the party of failing to clarify its “one China” policy. In a video released in October, Ho, wearing a T-shirt featuring a portrait of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), said she hoped that Taiwan would “soon return to the embrace of the motherland” and “quickly unify — that is my purpose and my responsibility.” The KMT’s Disciplinary Committee on Nov. 19 announced that Ho had been suspended from her position on the committee, although she was
Two mayors have invited Japanese pop icon Ayumi Hamasaki to perform in their cities after her Shanghai concert was abruptly canceled on Saturday last week, a decision widely interpreted as fallout from the latest political spat between Japan and China. Organizers in Shanghai pulled Hamasaki’s show at the last minute, citing force majeure, a justification that convinced few. The cancelation came shortly after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remarked that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could prompt a military response from Tokyo — comments that angered Beijing and triggered a series of retaliatory moves. Hamasaki received an immediate show of support from
RSS