An online signature drive petitioning to recall President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that has collected more than 156,000 signatures since its initiation on Wednesday is just one of several public movements spurred by Ma’s “political persecution” of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), as more people and civic groups called for protests on Sept. 29, the date slated for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) national congress.
Playing on the Chinese word for “chide,” which is “Ma,” former TVBS vice president Ge Shu-ren (葛樹人) has announced on Facebook his plan to “take to the street to chide Ma.” The post garnered hundreds of “likes” and “shares.”
Ge had previously sent a public letter to former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chi-chiang (羅智強), taking Lo to task for launching the attack on Wang while he was attending his daughter’s wedding.
Photo: Taipei Times
Ge also questioned if Lo or any of his family members had ever abused their influence or accepted any bribes.
“Is asking reporters not to report certain things and not to publish certain stories not a form of undue influence as well?” Ge asked.
However, some netizens questioned Ge’s intentions, as the planned route of his march would lead toward Ketagalan Boulevard and away from the Sun Yat-sen memorial hall, the venue of the KMT national congress.
Calling for a full besiegement of the Memorial Hall when the KMT members gather there, the National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories is staging a separate protest against Ma and the government on the same day.
The alliance called on other civic groups which have been formed in response to government repression in the past few years to join the protest and wear black to mark the day, organizers said.
They added that they invite all those protesting the tearing down of Taipei’s Huaguang (華光) and Shaoxing (紹興) communities, urban renewal projects, Yuanli’s (苑里) wind turbine project, the demolition of houses in Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔) and nuclear power to join forces to “prevent the KMT [government] from reversing Taiwan’s democratic progress.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique