Taipei Mayor Ko-Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that he respects political commentator Yao Li-ming’s (姚立明) plan to support Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) if he runs for Taipei mayor this year.
Yao Li-ming, who was Ko’s chief campaign director during the 2014 election, made the remark during a television interview with political talk show host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) on Tuesday.
“I think Pasuya Yao will be a good mayor,” he said. “Whether he gets nominated by his party or not, if he decides to run for election, I am willing to be his chief campaign director.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Pasuya Yao responded on Facebook that night that he felt like he “has seen blue skies after rain.”
He said he hoped he could show the DPP and its supporters what “Taiwanese values” signify if he becomes mayor.
Ko, who is visiting the Netherlands, was asked by Taiwanese reporters whether he would still ask Yao Li-ming to assist him.
“Strategically speaking, there should be more friends and fewer enemies,” Ko said, adding that it is important to always leave room for cooperation.
In related news, online news outlet Storm Media on Monday reported that Ko had instructed city officials to blacklist one of its reporters for reporting on why former Taipei Department of Tourism and Information Commissioner Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) resigned and details about the city’s preparations for the Lantern Festival.
Ko denied blacklisting the reporter, but said that 30 percent of the reporter’s story was false,” which caused trouble and affected mutual trust.
He added that he told city officials ought to be aware of unusual news leakages.
Ko’s action was criticized by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“An elected official, especially the mayor of a major city, should not be so quick to disparage the media, whose work is essential for democracies to function well,” Taipei-based East Asia bureau head Cedric Alviani said in a statement on the RSF Web site on Tuesday.
Ko yesterday said that news reporters are not professional if they do not check facts or seek balance in their stories.
While reporters have the right to interview, people also have the right to be interviewed, the mayor added.
Ko said he would deal with the issue when he returns to Taiwan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do