President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), a former Taipei mayor, yesterday joined Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) in inspecting the Tamsui River, praising his successor for improving the quality of the river and using the occasion to campaign for him.
Visiting the river’s Dun Huang Pier, Ma, Hau and Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) lauded the result of the close cooperation between Taipei city and county on dredging the river, with Hau promising to continue the work if re-elected.
Cleaning up the river was one of Hau’s major campaign promises when he ran for mayor in 2006. Now seeking re-election, Hau has proposed working with the party’s Sinbei mayoral candidate, Eric Chu (朱立倫), to invest NT$50 billion (US$1.5 billion) and set up a Tamsui River management department.
Photo: CNA
The cleanup of the river began when Ma was Taipei mayor. The city government dredged the river and set up a sewage system to improve the water quality.
“I expect Hau to continue the work and make the river better and cleaner,” Ma said.
As Hau has taken leave to focus on the election campaign from yesterday, his participation in a municipal forum raised questions whether he used his status as a mayor for campaign purposes.
Brushing aside the concerns, Hau said: “There are some events that require the mayor’s attendance.”
“We do everything to follow the regulations, and I will make sure that we do not use municipal resources for campaigning,” he added.
Hau’s camp yesterday also ran an ad in the Chinese-language Apple Daily accusing the Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), of boycotting subsidies to Taipei City when he served as premier.
Hau said that soon after his election in 2006, he applied with the Executive Yuan to get subsidies for major events and municipal projects, including the Deaflympics, the Taipei International Flora Expo and the renovation of Taipei Songshan Airport.
Su, however, failed to give enough subsidies to the city, Hau said. Rejecting the accusations, Su called the ad a “smear campaign” by the Hau camp.
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