Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday bowed and apologized to Taipei city councilors for losing his temper while attending a council meeting last week.
Ko said he had already called Taipei City Council Speaker Wu Pi-chu (吳碧珠) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to offer his apology immediately after the incident.
“You just have to correct mistakes. I deserve the criticism I received,” Ko said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Ko on Wednesday last week angrily pounded his desk after KMT Taipei City Councilor William Hsu (徐宏庭) accused him of being partial to former EasyCard Corp chairman Tai Chi-chuan (戴季全) and insinuated that he and Tai had a “special/sexual” relationship (特殊性關係).
EasyCard, a semi-governmental company in which the Taipei City Government is the largest shareholder, mainly issues smart stored-value cards called EasyCards that are used to pay for fares on Taipei’s MRT and bus system.
The desk-pounding incident occurred one day after Ko decided to propose to EasyCard’s board that Tai be removed as chairman, but retained as general manager, following Tai’s controversial decision to issue EasyCards featuring photographs of Japanese adult video star Yui Hatano.
The personnel change was widely criticized as meaningless, because as general manager, Tai would remain the company’s top administrator.
Many believe that Tai received favorable treatment because he served as Ko’s campaign director in last year’s mayoral race.
Ko yesterday told city councilors that he had asked Tai to resign as EasyCard chairman and general manager, and that he has called for an investigation.
Tai and the company have been rebuked by the public, especially by women’s groups, since it announced on Aug. 26 that it was collaborating with Hatano to introduce a two-card limited edition series to raise money for charity.
Although the company said that all 15,000 sets of the cards were sold out via telephone preordering services on Sept. 1, it was later discovered that the firm had reserved 3,000 sets of the cards in advance for sale to its own workers or as gifts to Taipei City councilors and Taipei City Government officials.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
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Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
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