Kaohsiung must act on the city’s high suicide rate, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said yesterday, while Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who is seeking re-election, said that suicide “should not be an election issue.”
Ko said Chen was ignoring city residents’ problems after reports that eight bodies of people who had apparently committed suicide were found in the city’s rivers within 37 days.
“Is Chen Chi-mai taking residents’ suffering seriously?” Ko wrote on social media on Friday.
Photo: Ge Yu-hao, Taipei Times
Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), yesterday said that suicide is a serious issue that should not be dragged into election campaigns.
He had never seen the issue being discussed during past election campaigns, he added.
His administration has addressed the suicide issue and worked on it with community volunteers and clinical psychiatrists, he said.
Photo: CNA
The city’s suicide rate has decreased since he took office, Chen said.
Ko had said that there had been 4,700 suicides in the city over the past 10 years.
The Kaohsiung Health Bureau said the most suicides were recorded in 2019, when Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT was mayor.
Ko yesterday said that Chen’s administration “always uses Han Kuo-yu as a scapegoat,” while Kaohsiung’s suicide rate remained the highest among the six special municipalities.
“Chen should hurry up and think of effective ways to prevent suicides,” she said.
Ko’s campaign office released a statement saying that the number of suicides in Kaohsiung rose from 453 in 2020 to 490 last year, with Chen as mayor.
“We bring up the kind of issues that concern the city’s residents because we hope the situation can improve,” the statement said.
Separately, suicide prevention volunteers and clinical psychiatrists issued a joint statement saying that discussing suicide at campaign events was “worrisome and contemptible,” calling on candidates to avoid the topic.
“This talk evokes painful memories for the friends and relatives of suicide victims,” the statement said. “It also risks encouraging copycat suicides.”
Additional reporting by Fang Chih-hsien
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese