The public wants to know President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) definition of “Taiwanese values,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
Ko on Friday said in a television interview that he is waiting for Tsai to turn in her “exam papers,” referring to her policy plans, to decide whether he will support her in next year’s presidential and legislative elections.
Tsai yesterday said that her “report card will be for the people to review, not for a certain politician or a political party.”
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Later in the day, reporters approached Ko at a traditional pudu (普渡, “universal salvation”) ceremony in Taipei for comments on Tsai’s remark.
“Of course [her remark] is correct, but I believe every person in Taiwan really wants to know what President Tsai’s ‘Taiwanese values’ are,” he said.
“She used to ask other people, now it is her turn to answer other people’s questions,” Ko added, referring to a TV interview in January last year in which Tsai, then the chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was asked whether the party would support Ko in the mayoral election in November, to which Tsai said that Ko should reaffirm his “Taiwanese values” so that DPP supporters can know that he is someone they can cooperate with.
When asked whether he has discussed the possibility of cooperation with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) for next year’s election, Ko said it depends on whether a cooperation can create values that are demanded by the public.
Wang earlier yesterday reiterated that he would “seek to be president until the very end.”
Ko was asked whether Wang’s attitude might affect their cooperation.
“It depends on how Taiwanese mainstream opinion develops and what the market wants at the end,” he said. “I realized that for ideas to combine, everyone involved should be willing to compromise a little to achieve the bigger goal, because if everyone insists on their idea, then it would be difficult to achieve.”
However, Ko denied he meant for Wang to compromise, saying that his attitude toward working with Gou and Wang remains the same, which is: “Let nature take its course.”
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