《TAIPEI TIMES》 Ko says voting age should be lowered to 18

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The legal voting age in Taiwan should be lowered to 18 to apply the principle of balancing rights and obligations, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） said yesterday.

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He made the remark while attending the University of Taipei’s 50th anniversary ceremony yesterday morning, where he was welcomed with loud cheers by the students and got to meet veteran Taiwanese pitcher Wang Chien-min （王建民） for the first time.

After his opening speech, Ko was asked by reporters to comment on the proposal of lowering the legal voting age from 20 to 18.

Legislators on Friday passed the second reading of the proposed amendments to the Referendum Act （公民投票法）. The amendments addressed seven debated articles including voting age, which is awaiting resolution on Tuesday.

“Setting the voting age at 18 is a world trend, but what surprises me more is that a public opinion poll of Taiwanese older than 20 showed that less than 50 percent support lowering the voting age to 18,” he said.

“In practical terms, people who are 18 or older and commit a crime are punished according to the Criminal Code, not the Juvenile Delinquency Act （少年事件處理法）, so I am supportive of lowering the legal voting age to 18, in terms of balancing rights and obligations,” he added.

Ko was asked why a few city councilors have questioned him for claiming to provide scholarships to Indian and Malaysian university students to study at information and communication departments of six designated universities in Taiwan when he did not allocate funds for the program in next year’s budget proposal.

After Ko visited India and Malaysia in late March, he instructed the city’s Department of Education to initiate a program for attracting talented youth from the two nations to study in Taiwan, but recently a few councilors questioned him for making a decision beyond his position and disagreed with using the local education development fund to cover the program.

“The program should have been implemented 20 years ago,” Ko said yesterday, adding that he thinks “Malaysia is the door to the Muslim world for Taiwan” and “India has some of the best software talent in the world, professionals who can make use of the good quality hardware and equipment made in Taiwan.”

There are currently more than 16,000 Malaysian students studying in Taiwan, which has caused China to take action to try to obstruct them from coming to Taiwan, he said, adding that it is still difficult for Taiwanese to enter the market there because of cultural and racial barriers.

It would be beneficial for Indian students to have the opportunity to study and do internships in Taiwan, he said.

“The program should be implemented, but as the central government has not taken action, the Taipei City Government should do as much as possible,” Ko said, adding that he is unsupportive of “opposing for the sake of opposition,” because the program benefits the development of industries on metropolitan and national levels.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES