Taipei Park and Street Lights Office Director Huang Li-yuan (黃立遠) yesterday apologized to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) for blaming her for the rejection of a flower planting project.
Accompanied by Taipei City Government Secretary-General Chang Jer-yang (張哲揚), Huang went to the Taipei City Council to apologize to her.
“I have come to apologize to Councilor Hsu Shu-hua for causing her trouble,” he told reporters. “I represent myself and apologize for my own miscognition or misunderstanding.”
The uproar was sparked by media reports that said Huang on Sunday had blamed Hsu for the rejection of his office’s proposed budget for planting azaleas when he talked with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as Ko attended the opening of Yang Ming Shan Flower Festival.
Huang said the rejection was an exercise in political manipulation, and Ko had responded with a swear word and suggested that Huang scold Hsu, the reports said.
Ko yesterday said that reporters must have secretly recorded a private conversation he had as he toured the park, adding that he and Huang sometimes said “even nastier words.”
Asked if he had overreacted because Hsu was a member of the former DPP New Tide Faction, Ko said: “Why do you ask when you know the answer?”
“I feel like I am having an allergic reaction when I hear those three words [New Tide faction],” he added later.
The faction caused a lot of harm to the nation and the DPP is now suffering the consequences, as the faction considers its own gains as more important than the party’s, he said.
The faction is “a disaster to the nation,” he said.
“I feel sad and upset that we are being called ‘political manipulators’ when we are diligently supervising the city government’s budget proposal,” Hsu told reporters yesterday.
Huang was the one doing the manipulating by complaining about her to Ko, she said.
She had only asked why, if the office had already allocated a large budget for planning flowers, it was asking for more to plant azaleas, she said.
The Taipei City Council passed the budget proposal after making cuts, she said.
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