Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday said that he would not withdraw from the party to join the Taipei mayoral race even if the DPP decided not to nominate any candidate for the capital.
During a media interview on Monday, Yao was asked if he would withdraw from the DPP and run as an independent if the party decided not to nominate a candidate in favor of renewing an alliance with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
“It is a possibility,” Yao reportedly said at the time.
However, Yao yesterday said he did not say he would “withdraw from the party,” and that the reports were a media exaggeration.
He said he would spare no effort to seek the DPP’s nomination and that he, as a DPP member, is proud of the party.
“The DPP can no longer work with Ko on ‘Taiwanese values.’ Ko has [failed to address] the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty and public opinions, and he has framed cross-strait relations as a ‘family’ without prior negotiations [with the government], aligning himself with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) narrative,” Yao said.
He also accused Ko of banning a journalist from talking with his staff members due to an unfavorable report about the city government’s allegedly questionable practices in organizing this year’s Lantern Festival.
That, coupled with Ko’s requiring city government officials suspected of leaking information about the Taipei Dome to the media to take polygraph tests in 2016, is indicative of Ko’s disrespect for democracy and human rights, Yao said.
Ko does not represent the progressive values he boasts and the DPP should part ways with the independent mayor, Yao said.
In related news, political commentator Yao Li-ming (姚立明), Ko’s chief campaign executive director during the 2014 election, said that whether or not the DPP nominates Pasuya Yao, he was willing to lead his mayoral campaign if he decides to run.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
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Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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