Despite Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (王金平) call to push the long-delayed arms-procurement package through to the National Defense Committee for review, the bill yesterday failed once more to pass the Procedure Committee and be placed on the legislative agenda.
Other blocked legislation -- the confirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) Control Yuan nominees and a retirement-fund bill -- also failed to pass the Procedure Committee, which met yesterday morning in advance of the next legislative session starting on Tuesday next week.
The pan-blue-camp dominated committee voted 18 to 12 against the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) proposal to place 18 bills on the legislative agenda.
Lashing out at the continuing boycott by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) caucuses, DPP Legislator Eva Hsieh (謝欣霓) said that it was unfathomable to her why the opposition parties were going back on their promise to review the arms-procurement bill if some of the package's items were redirected to the annual budget.
DPP caucus whip William Lai (
"We hope to see a new political climate in the new legislative session," he said.
Further procrastination over arms procurement was bound to sabotage the national interest, Lai said.
He said that Wang had made it clear that it was time to push the bill to the National Defense Committee for review because it had been bogged down in the legislature for too long.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) came to the defense of the DPP, and called on the public to express its discontent by punishing the KMT and the PFP at the year-end city mayor and county commissioner elections.
"The KMT and PFP are acting so irrationally that what they are doing is seriously affecting the normal functioning of this country," TSU caucus whip Mark Ho (何敏豪) said.
Ho said that the KMT and PFP were in close contact with the Chinese Communist Party, and that they had been boosting efforts to oppose important government bills.
"I'm wondering whether the KMT and PFP have in fact become agents for the Chinese government, whose main goal is to discredit the Taiwanese government," he said.
Meanwhile, Lai attacked the KMT for making "groundless accusations" against the government's eight-year, NT$80 billion flood-control plan.
Criticizing the KMT as "irresponsible" and "irrational," Lai said that KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma has described the legislation as "crudely prepared."
"It is disappointing to see Ma mislead the public with such deluding information," Lai said.
"We find their opposition and indifference to the plight of people unacceptable," he said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS