Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members yesterday expressed mixed feelings about DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) plan to try to recall President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, which he announced during the “Fury” (火大) rally in Taipei on Sunday. The government said such efforts were unlikely to succeed.
The reasoning behind the plan is legitimate because Ma’s governance has been poor, some DPP figures said, but others were concerned about the political ramifications the move could have and the difficulty of achieving the recall.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the party is still working out how to proceed with the plan and has not decided which KMT lawmakers to try to recall, but added that it would try to achieve what Su said would be a bid to replace “incompetent government officials” and “irresponsible lawmakers.”
The DPP has to wait until Feb. 1 to launch a bid to recall lawmakers and May 20 for a bid to recall Ma, since regulations do not permit such actions until a politician has completed one year of their term.
DPP Central Executive Committee member Hung Chih-kune (洪智坤) supports the initiative, saying it was what the people wanted and would unite the party.
Hung was unconcerned about the high threshold for recalling the president — which has to be proposed by at least a quarter of the legislature and agreed to by at least two-thirds of members before passing a national referendum — because “an opposition party is obliged to apply pressure to the ruling party” and Taiwanese “no longer have the patience to wait three more years for Ma to turn the country around.”
Recalling a lawmaker is not as difficult, but still requires at least 2 percent of the total electorate in the relevant electoral district to propose such a move and a petition signed by at least 13 percent of voters, before being approved by a simple majority in the constituency.
However, Hung said the “China factor” would still be the deciding issue in major elections as it was responsible for marginalizing Taiwan internationally, eroding its sovereignty, hollowing out its economy and jeopardizing free speech.
The KMT’s argument that a recall would be socially destabilizing, is unconvincing because the current political situation is “extremely stable” due to the KMT’s dominance of the administrative and legislative branches, he said.
Former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said the recall plan was more of a political statement than a practical goal because it would be very difficult to achieve, adding that the DPP should instead focus on presenting its policy on pension reform and anti-media monopoly.
Former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮) said that recalling KMT lawmakers and Ma would both be difficult.
The KMT lawmakers the DPP would most likely target are those from constituencies in northern Taiwan who earned landslide victories in the last legislative elections, including Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who beat the DPP candidate in his constituency last year by 17,696 votes, Kuo said.
It would be almost impossible to recall those legislators, he said.
Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the DPP has little chance of passing a proposal to recall Ma in the legislature because the threshold for doing so is very high.
The DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) hold a total of 43 seats in the 113-seat legislature, short of the two-thirds needed to pass a motion to recall Ma.
“They [the DPP and the TSU] can submit a motion to recall the president. There doesn’t seem much likelihood that the proposal will clear the legislature,” Wang said.
Meanwhile, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Steven Chen (陳士魁) said he respected the DPP’s right to free speech, but would like to remind the party that the Cabinet has embarked on reforms to address the issues raised at the Fury rally.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)