Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday apologized to former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) after Ma’s office complained about the way he was forced to stop speaking during the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate’s rally in New Taipei City’s Xingfu Shueiyang Park (幸福水漾公園) on Sunday.
Ma’s introductory remarks were cut short by organizers after supporters grew impatient for Han, who was spotted wading through the crowd in the middle of Ma’s speech, an hour after he was scheduled to appear on stage.
Campaign office deputy chief executive Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) abruptly curtailed Ma’s speech by announcing it was time for the former president to get some rest backstage, as exit music was played, even though Ma said: “I have not finished yet.”
Photo: CNA
The way the event organizers ended Ma’s speech earlier than planned was “very regrettable,” Ma’s office said yesterday morning.
There was a “tiny problem” with the way his campaign office had scheduled guest speakers, Han told reporters in Kaohsiung yesterday afternoon.
“The schedule was too tight,” he said, adding that the rally had a lot of speakers because it was the first held by his campaign office.
He telephoned Ma yesterday morning to apologize that he had to wait for an hour to make his speech, Han said.
“I also waited outside for an hour. I left for the stage as soon as I was informed that it was time,” he told reporters.
Han’s campaign office also issued an apology for the “slight delay” in scheduling, which it said was caused by the large number of KMT officials attending the event.
“Due to the delay, Mayor Han waited outside the venue. He was not late for the event,” it said.
Han had not planned to make a dramatic entry through the crowd during Ma’s speech, but the large crowd at the rally had prevented any vehicles from entering the area near the stage, so Han had to walk to the backstage area, it said.
The office was grateful to everyone who attended, it added.
Ma’s office confirmed that Han had apologized to Ma in a telephone call, and that while he had been surprised at the way things unfolded, “he did not mind.”
Han’s aides should be more cautious to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, it quoted Ma as saying.
In other developments, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said that the city had asked Han’s campaign office to repair damage caused to the park during the rally.
An inspection of the park yesterday morning showed damaged grass and a significant amount of garbage.
“If the grounds cannot be repaired, we will handle the situation according to regulations,” Hou said. “We will be strict [with punishments].”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) yesterday wrote on Facebook that “it was pretty impressive that Han managed to get on so many people’s nerves in just one rally.”
By forcing Ma off stage, doing a sloppy cover of a song by Taiwanese rock band EggPlantEgg and damaging the park’s grass, Han had infuriated “better-educated KMT supporters, music fans and New Taipei City residents,” Lin said.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS