Despite President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) remarks that now is not the right time to assign blame for mass flooding in southern Taiwan from Typhoon Fanapi, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday continued trading accusations over the disaster.
Saying that the DPP was Taiwan’s ruling party for eight years and has governed in Kaohsiung for the past 12 years, KMT Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the DPP should not shift blame to the central government and should instead focus her attention on reconstruction.
“Chen’s comments that the central government should take 80 percent of the responsibility for the drainage construction in Kaohsiung only frustrate Kaohsiung residents more and show her lack of a sense of responsibility,” Su said.
Chen made the comment in response to criticism by KMT Kaohsiung City councilors who faulted the municipal team’s disaster relief work and drainage system design after the typhoon.
Arguing that the central government has devoted full efforts to the relief and reconstruction work in the aftermath of the flooding, Su yesterday said Chen should join efforts with the central government in the reconstruction, rather than shifting her responsibility.
DPP officials, on the other hand, insisted the blame does not lie with the Kaohsiung City Government.
One day after the flooding, KMT legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) accused Chen of placing her own re-election bid first and the safety of residents second — after showing documents that suggested her administration spent part of its water treatment budget on municipal promotions.
Chiu yesterday said the flooding was caused by human error, alleging that the city government neglected water treatment issues for years and questioning whether it had dredged city ditches prior to the typhoon.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said Chiu’s accusations took information out of context.
Chiu “played around with the numbers and is trying to connect two unrelated things,” Huang said.
According to the DPP caucus, promotional funding was drawn from a budget for human resources.
Kaohsiung City officials said the misunderstanding arose because the city government disbanded its public relations office in July at the request of the KMT-led city council. Instead, it takes its promotional funding from various city branches.
“Everything was done according to the letter of the law,” said Hsu Li-ming (�?�), director-general of the city government’s Information Office. “Not a cent was drawn from the water treatment engineering budget.”
Huang said another report issued by the National Auditing Office highlighting deficiencies in Kaohsiung City’s water treatment system, made public by Chiu on Tuesday, showed that KMT-administered Taipei City had even more unresolved issues.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the central government should play a bigger role in managing flood prevention.
“Every time we see a flood like this happen, central and local governments are always unclear about their responsibilities,” she said. “But it is evident that only the central government has the power and funding to effectively handle the situation.”
At a separate setting yesterday, Chen said she did not mean to deflect responsibility with her remarks on Tuesday.
“I never thought to shirk my responsibility,” Chen told a press conference as she offered an apology to Kaohsiung residents for their suffering from the flooding.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS