Politics in Taiwan have been boring and full of meaningless rhetoric for far too long and it should be a combination of humor and seriousness, highlighting grassroot voices, award-winning writer Neil Peng (馮光遠) said yesterday at a press conference announcing his bid for the Taipei mayoral election.
“Humor has been one of my most distinctive characteristics. I was able to use it to comment on politics and politicians even in a time of wrath and an age of dirty politics. With that, I am able to see things in a different and clear perspective,” Peng said.
The 61-year-old, known for political satire in his columns and blog posts, particularly targeting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), as well as for one-liners, said he would run as an independent and would not drop out of the race regardless of how his campaign fares.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Citing the example of former New York mayor Ed Koch and London Mayor Boris Johnson, Peng said the element of humor would complement democracy well and, in particular, help elevate Taiwan’s democracy to another level.
However, Peng is to make sure his campaign means business and is much more than making jokes, saying that he and a mixed group of academic consultants and social workers had engaged in serious discussions about every policy area of the city during the past two years.
Peng said he was disappointed that there have been no aspirants talking about city affairs and most people only paid attention to verbal attacks and political maneuvering and calculations, vowing that he would not do the same thing.
“We do not want gossip and wars of rhetoric you’re now seeing on television news every day. We are promoting new politics, which highlights a bottom-up process and US-style town hall meetings with constituents — a grassroots movement, you may say,” he said.
The former journalist could not help taking a jab at potential KMT nominee Sean Lien (連勝文), son of former vice president and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), saying that his bid intended to prove that the rich and the powerful could not dominate politics forever.
“I heard that [Sean Lien] described his legal team of several dozen lawyers as the ‘aircraft carrier team’ of his campaign. I have bad news for him because I have a team of voluntary lawyers, too. And they don’t cost me a penny. I would like to call them the ‘submarine team’ of my campaign,” Peng said.
Peng declined to comment on the ongoing turmoil in the pan-green camp surrounding another independent hopeful, National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), saying that he does not know much about Ko and he preferred to focus on his own campaign.
His campaign theme — “Little happiness, large right and wrong” — refers to a government refocus on doing the little things that would improve people’s livelihood and insist on upholding integrity, he said.
Ko’s leave of absence from the hospital took effect yesterday, meaning he will be able to work on his campaign full-time.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
RSS