Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday rebutted Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) criticism that her choice of team is questionable, saying that many of them worked in the government of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
“My team consists of people from the party headquarters, our think tank, the legislative caucus, and local governments — they come from everywhere; it is a big and strong team,” Tsai said.
“The team does not belong to any individual, it belongs to the nation. I am confident that this strong team can shoulder their responsibilities for the nation,” she said.
Tsai made the remarks in response to Wang’s criticism on Saturday that Tsai’s team is questionable because the public were not satisfied with Chen’s government and many people who worked in the Chen administration are now on Tsai’s team.
“After hearing Wang’s comments, I really would like to ask what happened to ‘Uncle Fairness?’” Tsai said.
DISCUSSIONS
Uncle Fairness, or Gongdaobo, (公道伯) was the nickname given to Wang by his supporters when they created a Facebook page for him earlier in the year, saying he has a good relationship with lawmakers across party lines, and would even hold the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to account.
Tsai also criticized Wang’s proposal to pass amendments for legislative reform in the current legislative session, which is to end in less than two weeks.
“I am not saying that legislative reform is not urgent, but it is such an important issue that it could not be taken care of before the end of this legislative session, as Wang intends to do,” Tsai said.
“A lot of discussions are needed,” she added.
“Why is the KMT — and particularly Wang — in such a rush after the KMT has blocked so many legislative reform proposals raised by the DPP?” Tsai said.
As for KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) accusation that Tsai’s insistence on SET-TV hosting the presidential debate is tantamount to “hiding behind SET-TV,” Tsai said that when KMT Central Standing Committee member Sean Lien (連勝文) ran for Taipei mayor last year, he also took part in a debate hosted by SET-TV, and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) also agreed to have SET-TV host the debate when she was the party’s presidential nominee in August.
“Would Chu say that they were also ‘hiding behind SET-TV’?” Tsai said.
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