More than 3,000 people yesterday came out to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the founding of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) at Taichung International Exhibition Center, with people paying more than NT$300,000 in an auction of party Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) personal items.
The auction featured an election campaign vest of presidential candidate Ko, as well as a bicycle helmet, a belt and a suitcase. The items were sold for a total of NT$340,000, which is to be donated to charity.
The TPP’s eight legislative candidates for next year’s elections also attended, including Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠), who called for party members to help “send Ko Wen-je into the Presidential Office.”
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Former TPP legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) urged party members to join forces in the elections to oust the ruling party.
Ko said that next year would be a turning point for Taiwan, and he hopes that in the next five months, the party can come to together to change the nation’s political culture for a better Taiwan.
He said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have divided Taiwanese society, and that Taiwanese are hoping to end the two-party system so that lawmakers would face Taiwan’s real problems.
The TPP seeks to end division and populism in the nation’s politics with “professionalism,” and bring about solidarity to deepen Taiwan’s democracy, which the KMT and DPP cannot achieve, Ko said.
He called President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administrating a “national scamming team” because it normalized special budgets, allocating more special budgets than those of the two previous administrations combined.
“Please believe in yourself and believe in Ko Wen-je. Let us change the political culture, change Taiwan’s destiny. Let us fight together without hesitation to achieve a better Taiwan,” he said. “Let us believe we can do something impossible. Let us overcome blue and green politics.”
The sides of the main stage were decorated with congratulatory floral arrangements, including ones sent by Vice President William Lai (賴清德), who is also DPP chairman and the party’s presidential candidate, and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫).
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), rumored to still harbor aspirations to run in next year’s presidential election, sent flowers with a message citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) words: “Compatriots should join forces, there is power in solidarity.”
The floral arrangement sent by New Power Party Chairperson Claire Wang (王婉諭) included a card that said that politics must “not only surpass blue and green, but must also have a clear distinction between black [criminal] and white,” the color often associated with the TPP.
Wang later elaborated in a post on Facebook, writing that while the TPP boasts that it is “surpassing the blue and green” divide, it nonetheless has followed the DPP and KMT in moving closer to “black gold” politics, which she said not only hurts the party, but also the people’s expectations toward a third force.
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