《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ko comes under fire at Taipei City Council

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） yesterday faced a barrage of questions by Taipei city councilors over his performance since he took office 16 months ago.

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A dozen councilors signed up to speak at the first meeting of the new Taipei City Council session, which began yesterday, delaying Ko’s policy address for hours.

Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Taipei City Councilor Chen Chung-wen （陳重文） said Ko should apologize to the public over the murder of a girl in Neihu District （內湖） last month and the murder of a schoolgirl in Beitou District （北投） last year because he had — for a short time — reduced police patrols, calling their tasks “redundant.”

Ko had also delayed installing perimeter alarm systems at the city’s elementary schools, Chen said.

Although the police patrols were reinstated, Ko’s actions have caused society to lose faith in public security, Chen said.

Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien （王世堅） presented Ko with a surgical mask, saying that he should “shut up and do his job.”

“Dr Ko, you have taken off your surgical mask and become Mayor Ko to serve more people. I urge you to put on the mask again, focus on your mayoral duties and shut up,” Wang said.

Wang said Ko’s governance style is “autocratic,” adding that every time Ko draws criticism for a flawed policy, he blames agency heads and uses them as “scapegoats.”

The city councilor accused the mayor of pandering to big businesses, citing as examples the city government’s negotiations with CTBC Financial Holding Co over the Taipei Dome build-operate-transfer （BOT） project, and the royalties the city government is to forgo in the Syntrend Creative Park BOT project due to legal restrictions.

At the same time, Ko has made the average Taipei resident suffer by introducing a range of transportation fare hikes while reducing property taxes for construction firms, Wang said.

KMT Taipei City Councilor Li Keng Kui-fang （厲耿桂芳） drew a parallel between Ko and US businessman Donald Trump, saying that many commentators have said that the Republican presidential hopeful would pose a risk to the US if he is elected, which contributed to the recent drop in Trump’s approval ratings.

Ko’s support ratings have also plummeted, she said.

Li Keng said that when Ko was first elected, he was like the protagonists in Peking operas who are loved by everyone.

However, now the resembles Peking Opera clowns instead, Li Keng said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES