Campaign donations to go to charity: Ko Wen-je

By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter





Leftover election subsidies will be donated to charity, independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said in an interview on Wednesday night.

Hosts of a talk show on NextTV showed the mayor a video clip that referenced campaign comments he made calling money a “demon ring” with the power to corrupt.

A political commentator in the clip said that if Ko did not donate his leftover election subsidies to charity, the funds would become his “demon ring.”

Ko Wen-je, mayor of Taipei. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Ko said he would donate to charity all remaining campaign funds after paying off office and legal expenses, despite previous comments saying he might use the NT$25.6 million (US$819,000) to pay back a NT$10 million loan owed to his father.

Ko said that the issue had caused tension between him and his wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), but he had decided to donate the money to charity after being reminded of his promise.

Also during the interview, Ko, who is the head of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) medical team, criticized the lack of clear arrangements to prevent Chen from engaging in political activities after his release on medical parole.

Ko said that because of Chen’s feelings of injustice over his imprisonment, the former president could possibly go “nuclear” within two weeks of his parole.

Ko criticized the government’s failure to impose clear controls on Chen, saying that just as control is the difference between a nuclear energy reactor and a nuclear bomb, Chen needs to have his movements controlled by being placed under house arrest rather than being allowed to roam free during the period of his parole.

Meanwhile, when asked about how he was able to get a budget for proposed changes to Taipei’s Chongyang bridge where the previous administration had failed, Ko joked: “All you have to do is yell at officials.”

He also said that he had vetoed an initial draft of plans for how government departments should handle newspaper and magazine subscriptions.

Ko has asked that departments review and justify subscriptions to cut waste, but said the proposed plan would not save enough money.