Sun, Jul 21, 2019 page3

• Ko says DPP used him in 2014 mayoral election

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  Acknowledging that he has criticized pan-green and pan-blue politicians too harshly over the past week, Taipei Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he also believes that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would not have supported him in the 2014 Taipei mayoral election if it could have won by itself.

  Ko had been asked to comment on a remark that political commentator Yao Li-ming (姚立明), who was Ko’s executive campaign director for the 2014 election, made about him on a political talk show on Thursday.

  Ko on Wednesday said that he “harbors resentment” toward President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

  

  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, center, attends the Taipei TATA Cup Parent-Child Sports Day held by the Taipei City Government’s Department of Social Welfare at Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium yesterday.

  Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

  Yao said that Ko was being “ungrateful,” because the term “white force,” which differentiates him from the pan-blue and pan-green camps, was actually thought up by campaign officials that Tsai had sent to help Ko.

  “If the DPP could win the 2014 Taipei mayoral election, they would not have given me a chance, so the decision was made to suit their interests at the time,” Ko said yesterday. “What they did not expect was that this guy — Ko Wen-je — is not so obedient.”

  He said becoming a politician was an accident, as he had been doing fine as a surgeon at National Taiwan University Hospital until an unexpected event occurred, and he stumbled upon the profession.

  The breakup between the pan-green camp and the white force was due to the DPP not realizing that “not all those who criticize you are your enemy,” Ko said, adding that he does not like the divide between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, both of which have since about 1996 been labeling those outside their party as “the enemy.”

  Since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Monday announced that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) would face Tsai in January’s election, Ko has been criticizing Tsai, Han, the DPP and even Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

  “I have been reflecting ... about the harsh rhetoric I have used in the past few days,” he said, adding that he would try to restrain himself, as his mother told him that while he might soon forget what he said about others, the person he criticized might remember it for 20 years.
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