President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday pledged to seek social consensus when handling major ethnic issues, including the 228 Incident and a proposed renaming of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.
The president asked the Ministry of Education (MOE) to organize a public forum and seek consensus on issues related to the title of the hall and promised to continue funding the 228 Memorial Foundation with an annual budget of NT$300 million (US$9.2 million).
IMPORTANT PROCESS
“The process of handling these issues is as important as the results. Some people are more concerned about the process, so we should make decisions by reaching a consensus rather than through a vote,” Ma said while addressing a meeting of education and interior ministry officials at the Presidential Office.
FOUNDATION’S FUTURE
The meeting was called by the president to address the future of the government-funded 228 Memorial Foundation and the controversy surrounding the name of the hall.
Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) and education and interior ministry officials, including Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) and Minister Without Portfolio Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗), attended the meeting.
In addition to the foundation’s annual budget, Ma also promised to establish regulations to legitimize the establishment of the 228 National Museum, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said.
CRITICISM
The foundation was critical of the Ma administration after the legislature, dominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), froze its budget last year and then refused to grant a budget for this year.
Ma, who has been seeking support from 228 Incident victims since serving as Taipei mayor, said the government would make up for the previous budget cuts by providing an annual budget starting next year and vowed to continue funding the foundation until the government had paid the NT$1.5 billion the foundation had been promised by the previous administration.
Wang said the president also asked the Executive Yuan to apply to the legislature to unfreeze the 2007 budget for the foundation.
The 228 Incident refers to an uprising against the KMT that began on Feb. 28, 1947, and was followed by a bloody crackdown, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.
On the controversies surrounding the hall, Wang said the MOE’s plan to replace the name plaque with the original Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaque remained unchanged and that the replacement would be done in accordance with the law.
OTHER ISSUES
On other issues relating to the hall — including whether to change the title back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the future of the Liberty Square inscription at the entrance — Ma asked the MOE to organize a public forum before July to attempt to seek a consensus before making any decisions, Wang said
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
RSS