Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Harry Lee’s (李來希) criticism of New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭), including his comments about Wang’s slain daughter, yesterday sparked a public outcry, prompting the KMT to distance itself from Lee.
“Wang has forgotten where she came from, using her own daughter’s head as a stepping stone,” Lee said, accusing Wang of exploiting her daughter’s death for her own political gain.
Lee, best known for leading protests against the government’s pension reform targeting civil servants, said on Facebook that Wang had no feud with Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), and therefore no reason to support Han’s recall.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
“The head of ‘little lightbulb’ had been kicked to Kaohsiung by her mother,” he added.
Wang’s four-year-old daughter, nicknamed “little lightbulb,” was beheaded in 2016 by then-33-year-old Wang Ching-yu (王景玉), who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The Supreme Court on April 15 dismissed Claire Wang’s appeal and upheld a lower court’s ruling of life imprisonment and civil rights deprivation for life for Wang Ching-yu.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Claire Wang said that her personal loss should not be used to create political confrontation and panned Lee for making such vitriolic comments.
She said that Lee was not the first to make such comments and she believed that a politician should only be criticized in the performance of their duties.
Lee’s comments underscored the public mindset that victims, or their families, must be “helpless and weak” and not be allowed an opinion, she said, adding that this mindset turns the public against victims when they try to appeal for redress, blaming them for “using the death of a family to advance their own cause.”
Despite the protection of freedom of speech, such malevolent speech should not be allowed for it contributes nothing to the nation’s advancement, Wang said.
NPP Chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) strongly condemned Lee’s comments, calling on Han, who has long called for open-mindedness, and the KMT to make known their stance regarding such malignant commentary.
The KMT does not condone Lee’s commentary and urges him to issue an apology, KMT Culture and Communications Committee chair Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.
The party, like Han, feels that Lee’s comments was rubbing salt in Wang’s wounds and the death of a child should not be talked about in such a manner, Alicia Wang said.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said on Facebook that Lee’s manipulation of a tragedy — and the fear of any parent — was despicable and should not be condoned.
“One can have different political views, but one should, as a decent human being, know that there are lines that should not be crossed,” Chiang said.
Should Lee refuse to apologize, the party would forward the issue to the Central Evaluation and Discipline Committee, which would begin a probe against Lee by the local party chapter, a source in the party said on condition of anonymity.
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