Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai’s (陳其邁) campaign yesterday announced that he had received the endorsement of nearly 600 physicians and academics.
Academics have to act against disinformation, fake news and attempts to suppress free speech on social media, Liu Ching-kuan (劉景寬), the main organizer of the endorsement and a former president of Kaohsiung Medical University, told a news conference at Chen’s campaign headquarters.
“Last year, Harvard University president Drew Faust said at the school’s convocation that the most important goal of higher education is to ensure that graduates can recognize when someone is talking rot,” Liu said. “We call on Kaohsiung’s voters to apply a rational analysis and recognize the rot.”
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) slogan of opening the door to goods and people from China fails to take into account public health risks associated with international exchanges, Liu said.
As a public health expert, Chen is better qualified to be the mayor of the city, whose port handles the flow of people and commodities into Taiwan, Liu said, adding that an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease or African swine fever could cost the public tens of billions of dollars.
Physicians trust Chen to establish the public health infrastructure that would protect the health and well-being of the nation, Liu said.
Referring to Han’s criticism that Kaohsiung has been “old and poor” due to the DPP’s governance over the past 20 years, National University of Kaohsiung associate professor Chuang Shu-tzu (莊淑姿) said that residents know that their city is youthful and beautiful, adding that she has been happy with the DPP government’s work to preserve its history.
Chen said that he was grateful for the support and that his campaign is about making the city he grew up in a better place.
“I find it hard to believe that a candidate would openly say that he would ban political demonstrations or that native-language education is not needed outside of the family,” Chen said. “Kaohsiung should have a tolerant and pluralistic future.”
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