The Taiwan People’s Party (台灣民眾黨, TPP) was formally established yesterday in Taipei, with the party announcing its constitution and the election of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as its chairman.
The founding ceremony was held at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center, with hundreds of people attending.
Ko arrived shortly past noon and was welcomed by enthusiastic chants of: “Taiwan’s choice — Ko Wen-je,” “The best choice — Ko Wen-je” and “The party members’ choice — Ko Wen-je” — similar to the slogans used during his mayoral re-election campaign last year.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The party has 111 founding members, with 72 attending the morning meeting to decide the party’s constitution and elect a chairman, a cohost of the event said.
The founding members include members of the Ko administration — adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), Secretary-General Chang Jer-yang (張哲揚), spokesman Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) and deputy spokespeople Ke Yu-an (柯昱安) and Huang Ching-ying (黃?瑩) — and Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (台北捷運) chairman Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗).
Ko said that the TPP was founded to change Taiwan’s political culture, as the ideological battle between the two major parties has left the nation in a rut and led to friction over the past two decades.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
He said that his foremost principle is to promote the nation’s “general interests and the public’s maximum well-being.”
The biggest problem that Taiwanese politics has faced since 2000 is the destruction of the civil service system, because policies can be suddenly changed by political forces, without professional and technical discussions, unlike the past when there were technocrats, he said.
“While honesty and diligence should be basic requirements of government, they have become rare in today’s Taiwan,” he said, adding that the government needs to improve governance, regain the public’s trust and highlight the nation’s value to the world with a graft-free government.
Photo: CNA
Ko reiterated that he believes “Taiwanese values” are the implementation of universal values in Taiwan, including democracy, freedom, diversity, openness, rule of law, human rights, caring for the underprivileged and sustainable development.
“The TPP we established today is the coming together of ideas. We are not political leaders, but rather hope to become preachers of culture,” he said.
Public opinion, professional expertise and values are the three most important elements in decisionmaking, he added.
According to the party’s charter, the TPP conforms to the existing constitutional system and aims to strengthen national governance, enhance national interest and abolish corruption.
It will take a practical approach in foreign relations to ensure Taiwan’s survival and protect its sovereignty, it says.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) sent flowers to congratulate the party on its founding.
Gou’s gift came with a card that says: “Remember the reason it all started. It is our shared goal to ensure Taiwan’s stability and prosperity.”
Wang’s gift came with a message calling for solidarity to ensure peace and stability for Taiwan.
Gou’s and Wang’s gifts were the only flower baskets placed at the entrance of the venue.
Yonglin Education Foundation chief executive officer Amanda Liu (劉宥彤), a member of Gou’s campaign team, said she attended the event in her personal capacity to offer the party her best wishes.
The event coincided with Ko’s 60th birthday, and the mayor’s parents attended the event, where supporters shouted “Happy birthday” to Ko.
Outside the venue, several members of pro-independence groups and self-styled “Ko haters” staged a rally and called on Ko to resign as mayor if he runs for next year’s presidential election.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS