‘Tragic hero’: Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je plays victim card to milk support upon release

TAIPEI – The release of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je from detention is set to shake up domestic politics and could lay the ground for a political comeback – if he plays his cards right, analysts said.

The 66-year-old, whose Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is seen as a third force in Taiwan, had been detained without visitation rights for a year since September 2024 under

multiple charges of corruption

– all of which he has denied.

Besides being accused of accepting bribes involving a real estate deal, he also allegedly embezzled political donations during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Ko was released on Sept 8 after posting bail of NT$70 million (S$2.96 million), the highest in Taiwan’s history for a political figure. Under the terms of the release, he must stay at a registered address, wear a device equipped with a tracking system and is barred from leaving Taiwan.

Despite being charged with corruption in December 2024, Ko has managed to turn the narrative in his favour by cultivating the image of being a persecuted political victim, analysts said. Some local media outlets have gone so far as to describe him as having the halo of “Taiwan’s Mandela”.

“Ko is portraying himself as a tragic hero, because the more of a victim he appears to be, the more support he will get from his supporters,” Professor Yeh Yao-yuan, a Taiwan studies expert at University of St Thomas in Houston, Texas, told The Straits Times.

“If he hopes to return to politics in the future, this strategy would seem reasonable,” he said.

According to Ko, Taipei prosecutors have yet to find anything incriminating despite the intense scrutiny targeting him, his family and party members over the past year. 

In deciding to release him, the court had determined that the cross-examination of key witnesses had been completed, reducing the risk of evidence tampering​. But prosecutors are appealing against the court’s move.

“The (ruling) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could not have dreamed that the TPP would be so clean,” Ko said to rapturous cheers outside the detention centre on the day of his release.

However, there is a limit to how far Ko can go by playing the victim card, experts warned.

After all, he is still an accused awaiting trial, noted Dr Qi Dongtao, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute.

“He cannot overdo it because it will turn off the moderate voters, who are the most crucial voters in Taiwan’s elections,” he said. “He must tread the line carefully.”

Nonetheless, Ko’s release has injected new energy into the domestic political scene, and will certainly present a new headache for President Lai Ching-te. In recent months, Mr Lai

has seen his own approval ratings plummet

after two rounds of mass recall votes targeting the opposition ended in overwhelming defeat for the ruling party.

According to data released on Aug 29 by local pollster Formosa, Mr Lai’s approval rating has tumbled to a record low of 31 per cent, while public trust in him also fell to 36 per cent.

“Ko has always been such an eye-catching public figure – the DPP is going to need to prepare more narratives now to counter his influence over the public,” said Prof Yeh.

Ko is known for being an unpredictable but charismatic politician, whose straight-talking style has won over a mostly younger fan base disillusioned with Taiwan’s entrenched duopoly dominated by the DPP and the main opposition, the Kuomintang (KMT).

In the

January 2024 presidential election

, Ko, who served as Taipei mayor from 2014 to 2022, secured 26 per cent of the vote as a TPP candidate – considered remarkable for a party formed only in 2019.

When Ko was released on Sept 8, the moment was far from disgraceful. Hundreds of his most loyal supporters turned up to cheer him on as he lashed out at President Lai for his year-long “wrongful imprisonment”.

“I hope Taiwan can become better and not be torn apart by division – as it has been under Lai Ching-te,” he said, demanding that the President “think things through carefully”. 

Now that Ko is back in the public eye again, observers are waiting to see how his release will impact the future of Taiwan’s opposition coalition made up of the TPP and the KMT.

There is a consensus that the so-called “blue-white alliance” – a reference to the colours of the two parties – will continue to work closely to take on the DPP together. 

Over the past 1½ years, the opposition has used its combined majority in the legislature to pass various laws while blocking proposals by the ruling party. Going forward, it is likely that the two parties will also collaborate in some way in preparation for the 2026 municipal elections.

“Both the TPP and the KMT know that cooperation is the only way to survive,” said Dr Qi. “Ko will not try to be the sole hero again.”

During the 2024 presidential election, the two parties had

made the historic decision

to put up a joint ticket, but it ultimately fell apart with both sides publicly squabbling over who would run for president and who for vice-president. As Ko’s party is much smaller, critics at the time blamed him for refusing to yield the top job to the KMT.

But as much as both sides understand the importance of this partnership, analysts say that it could still be subject to change depending on who will take over as the new KMT chairman. The party is set to elect a new leader on Oct 18 to replace Mr Eric Chu. 

“If the candidate is someone who has always advocated a blue-white coalition, the room for cooperation will become larger than ever,” said Professor Chu Chao-hsiang, a political science analyst at Taiwan’s Chinese Culture University.

“But if it’s someone who has always kept their distance, that person won’t be completely uncooperative, but the room for cooperation will also be quite limited. We’ll have to wait and see.”