A woman was nominated as the KMT's vice chairperson yesterday, the first time in the 100-year history of the party that a women has been nominated for such a high position.
Former Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs chairperson Lin Cheng-chih (
"I'm surprised and a bit frightened," said Lin with a look of disbelief on her face, adding that she would do her best to assist Lien in his mission to lead the KMT back into power
The other four candidates for the position are former premier Vincent Siew (
The emergence of Lin in this race has been seen as an effort by the party to improve its image with female voters after its defeat in the March 18 election.
"Since the party set a quota for the number of women to be included in its decision-making bodies, it is natural to push for there to be a female vice-chairperson," Lien's assistant Lee Chien-jung(
Earlier yesterday, the congress meeting passed a reform package including the quota provision.
According the newly passed measures, the KMT has set a quota of 40 percent for minorities in its decision-making bodies -- among which a quota of 25 percent women is stipulated.
"We have reached consensus as to the path we have to go down for reform, but what we need now is to put the plan into action," announced KMT chairman Lien Chan at the close of the two-day meeting yesterday.
To create a more democratic party, all future chairmen will be directly elected by party members.
The first direct chairmanship election will be held at the party's congress meeting next year.
The KMT also decided to exclude individuals with criminal records from being nominated under a KMT ticket in a bid to eliminate the party's "black gold" (黑金) image.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
Singapore yesterday swore in Lawrence Wong (黃循財) as the city-state’s new prime minister in a ceremony broadcast live on television after Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) stepped down following two decades in office. Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, was inaugurated at the Istana government office shortly after 8pm to become the second person outside the Lee family to lead the nation. “I ... do solemnly swear that I will at all times faithfully discharge my duties as prime minister according to law, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. So help me God,” the
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for