Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is seeking re-election, yesterday said that his two main opponents, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), represent the “old politics,” which pours money into elections and policies.
With a week to go before the elections on Saturday, the three candidates continued door-to-door canvassing, while Yao also held a news conference near Taipei City Hall to promote a parade this afternoon.
Local media have reported that the DPP might abandon its candidate to support another, while other reports have said Ko’s chief-of-staff Tsai Pi-ju (蔡璧如) met DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福), indicating possible cooperation.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“As an election approaches, rumors begin everywhere, but Tsai and Hung do not know each other, so why would Hung invite her to discuss anything. It just sounds inconceivable, but of course any rumor can arise just before the elections,” Ko said.
Asked about campaign ads by his main opponents promising to restore the “Double Ninth Festival,” which involves payments to elderly people, Ko said: “I think Ting and Yao represent the old politics, but Taiwan must make progress. To them, elections and policies mean spending lots of money.”
Most of the campaign advertisements on TV, radio, buses and LED screens have been from the campaigns of Ting or Yao. These cost a lot of money, Ko said, adding that government funds are actually the people’s tax money.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Taiwan will go bankrupt, like Greece, if politicians keep squandering funds, he said.
Elsewhere, Ting said that pro-Taiwanese independence groups, who on Friday urged DPP supporters and city residents to “abandon Ko and support Yao,” were manipulating pro-unification and pro-independence ideologies, but the mayoral election is about economic development and evidently “a battle between Ting and Ko.”
In response to Ko’s remarks about money wasting, Ting called Ko “a hollow government head” and “a big, incapable fool” who spent lots of municipal government money, but has a poor administrative record.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Yao said that supporting Ting means supporting former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and former Chinese presidents Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), as they all recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” and resist reform.
“Supporting Ko Wen-je means supporting KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), because they all believe that the ‘two sides of the Strait are one family,’” Yao said.
“Ko and Han are friends, which is why Han does not support Ting,” he said.
The “1992 consensus” is a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, which refeers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Upon being told of Yao’s remarks, Ko laughed and said: “I do not understand his way of thinking.”
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