Amid heated criticism, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) yesterday apologized for his remarks directed at Hualien City voters after the party lost a mayoral by-election on Saturday.
“I can pretend to respect the election’s result, but I cannot pretend not to despise the voters,” Tuan wrote on Facebook on Saturday after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Wei Chia-hsien (魏嘉賢) won the by-election against his DPP opponent, Chang Mei-hui (張美慧).
Tuan deleted the post following an online furor and wrote an apology on Facebook yesterday, which nevertheless accused the KMT of vote-buying.
“I apologize for my post-election comment yesterday... I apologize for allowing a party with a long history of vote-buying to be able to continue attacking a DPP candidate after the election, and for embarrassing our supporters,” he wrote.
“Why can a clean election environment not be maintained without threatening words and continuous oversight?” wrote Tuan, who has repeatedly been critical of the involvement of Wei’s family in vote-buying cases and its connection with China Unification Promotion Party Chairman Chang An-le (張安樂).
Tuan’s comments drew heated criticism, especially from KMT members.
KMT Legislator Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) yesterday called a news conference condemning Tuan and demanding that he resign immediately.
Hsu called on Tuan and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to apologize to the city’s residents, saying they were duly exercising their rights and did not deserve to be scorned.
Hsu said Tuan, a legislator-at-large, was elected by pro-DPP voters in Hualien, and she asked that Tuan resign and return the ballots to voters.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said any party that does not respect democracy would be eliminated.
“Do you [Tuan] despise anyone who does not support whom you support? Is universal suffrage and public participation not democratic enough without your approval?” Hung said.
“Politicians who talk about being humble all the time, but privately despise the public are the ones who really deserve contempt,” KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said, adding that the DPP has “incessantly” talked about being a humble administration, but all it has done is provoke conflict.
KMT member Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said Tuan’s comments were not an exception, as there have been many similar remarks during elections.
It has become common for pundits to criticize an electorate as having failed an intelligence test if an election’s result is undesirable, but criticism that disrespects voters and provokes hatred only harms the critics and the party they are affiliated with, Hsu Chiao-hsin said.
DPP spokesperson Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) said the election is over and all parties should act with discretion, and called on the KMT to not use the occasion to incite unnecessary conflict.
The DPP’s attitude toward the election’s result was clear, as it acknowledged defeat immediately after the election, Yang said.
All party members will carry on with reforms in Hualien and continue late Hualien mayor Tien Chih-hsuan’s (田智宣) legacy, Yang added.
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than
RSS