Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday accused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of failing to restrain Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members and online supporters from insulting the late Kaohsiung City Council speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源), who died on Saturday night.
Hsu’s body was found after he apparently fell from his 17th-floor apartment, just a few hours after Kaohsiung residents voted to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), whom Hsu had strongly supported.
Chiang led attendees at a meeting at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei in a minute of silence for Hsu before the meeting started.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Han’s recall and Hsu’s death were two hard pills to swallow for KMT members during a time filled with sorrows, worries and anger, Chiang said.
However, while Hsu’s death saddened his supporters and people close to him, a DPP councilor ridiculed his death with inappropriate remarks, Chiang said, referring to comments made by DPP Taipei City Councilor Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) on Sunday on Facebook.
Describing Hsu’s death as “horrifying,” Liang added: “Were the bets that high?” — an apparent reference to rumors that Hsu had engaged in underground gambling on the results of the recall election.
The post sparked heated online discussions about whether Hsu was involved in any illicit activities, and Liang quickly deleted the post.
He has since repeatedly apologized for making “baseless accusations.”
Chiang called on Tsai, who is also DPP chairperson, to hold DPP members accountable, and to stop allowing misinformation and slanderous comments surrounding Hsu to spread on the Internet.
“How can anyone continue to blacken a person’s name after he died? Is this the democracy of Taiwan? Is this what we want to teach the next generation?” Chiang said.
Tsai should launch an investigation into who had made groundless comments through fake accounts, he said.
Chiang pledged to carry the KMT through the difficult time, adding that the party must turn sadness into motivation in the face of the election of a new city council speaker and a mayoral by-election in Kaohsiung.
The KMT would demonstrate its resolve in reforming the party, and those who choose to lick the party while it is down “might as well just leave,” he added.
The party’s candidate for council speaker would be vetted thoroughly to ensure that they would work well with other KMT councilors and those non-KMT councilors friendly to the party, he said.
He had consulted Hsu’s wife on the issue on Sunday, he said.
As for the by-election, which Chiang called a crucial opportunity for the KMT to continue making contributions to Kaohsiung, the party was still searching for the best candidate, he said.
In other developments, Presidential Office spokesman Ting Yun-kung (丁允恭) said that the DPP has expressed its condolences to Hsu’s family, and the authorities are continuing to investigate his death.
No one should ever make unfair remarks at the expense of the dead, Ting said.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS