Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday maintained that the opponents of pension reform who disrupted the Summer Universiade opening ceremony were “bastards” as he replied to a comment on Facebook.
Ko first made the remark on Sunday during a news conference after the protesters blocked foreign athletes entering the Taipei Municipal Stadium, where the ceremony was held on Saturday evening.
Ko also on Sunday posted on Facebook an aerial photograph of fireworks lighting up the sky above the stadium during the ceremony, thanking Universiade staff, volunteers, police officers and Taiwanese athletes for helping the ceremony continue smoothly, despite the incident.
Photo: Screengrab from Facebook
“Many staff members burst out in tears when the athletes were able to enter the stadium. I believe everyone has complicated emotions, but I want to quote a line from a comic: ‘The game is over if we give up now,’” he wrote. “The Universiade still has 10 days to go. I will stand with everyone. Let us do it together.”
The post received thousands of comments and more than 230,000 “likes” in 24 hours, including a comment that attracted even more attention than Ko’s post.
“You are the bastard. Being the mayor of Taipei and confidently vowing that nothing will go wrong during the Universiade, but what was the result? Who is the bastard now? We the residents of Taipei had not even asked you to pay for it,” the comment read.
It added that protesters have tried to disrupt several important international events, such as the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, but because adequate security measures were in place, the participants were able to arrive and leave safely, so the nations were not disgraced.
“Please tell all Taipei residents who the bastard is,” the netizen wrote.
Ko replied: “You and those anti-pension reform groups.”
Ko’s blunt reply attracted public attention, with many wondering whether it was written by Ko or by a member of his staff.
Later in the afternoon, Taipei City Government spokesman Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) said: “I confirmed the issue with the mayor, and the reply was indeed written by the mayor himself.”
“The mayor also mentioned that before the event, he clearly stated that the Universiade is not only Taipei’s Universiade, but also Taiwan’s, and the city government is hosting it as a national celebration, so he urged protesters not to disturb the Games, and also set up a special area for them to protest.”
“However, the mayor thinks the behavior of anti-pension reform groups that night has caused them to forfeit their legitimacy and support from the public, and disgraced the nation,” he said.
Asked whether Ko is worried about any legal repercussions, Liu said Ko will bear the responsibility for his words.
Ko’s reply had garnered more than 280,000 “likes” as of 8pm yesterday.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS