Some civic organizations yesterday joked that they may shy away from being called “civic groups” after questions posed by some of the groups at Friday’s debate between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and independent candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) were seen as being obviously biased against Ko.
Friday night’s televised debate included a session in which the candidates answered questions from six civic groups.
Netizens have said that questions asked by Taiwan Competitiveness Forum chairman Thomas Peng (彭錦鵬) favored the Lien camp and sought to embarrass Ko.
Photo provided by SET TV
Peng asked Lien how he intends to increase Taipei’s competitive edge as mayor and why he was willing to “risk his life” and run for the post after brushes with death — once when he was shot in the face and another when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Peng then asked Ko about National Taiwan University Hospital’s MG149 account, which he contended was illegal, and asked why Ko had been “exempt from the rule of law” in this case.
The cases refers to allegations that Ko siphoned money from the account for his personal use. After the claims surfaced, hospital president Huang Kuan-tang (黃冠棠) said that the MG149 account was “clean” and the National Audit Office’s probe found no evidence of unlawful activity.
Commenting on civic groups’ actions in the debate, Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建), assistant professor at Ming Chuan University’s department of public affairs, yesterday said that groups do not necessarily have to be politically neutral.
He added that if individuals from a group go on air to ask questions supposedly representing the public, they should seek to be fair and abide by the proper procedures to the best of their ability.
In situations like Friday night’s, members should not be in contact with a political camp in advance and should not seek to twist the truth or mislead people, Chen said, adding that it was inappropriate for a panelist to be blatantly biased.
Judicial Reform Foundation member Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) added that groups typically avoid receiving large donations to avoid undue influence.
Lee Li-fen (李麗芬), secretary-general of the group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes in Taiwan, said that her group will work with any official on policies that will help end exploitation.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —