Taiwan Nation Alliance convener Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) yesterday said that members of the alliance’s pro-localization groups will take part in a major rally against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to be staged by activist group Citizen 1985 on Double Ten National Day tomorrow.
“The alliance has three demands: that Ma step down to take responsibility for causing political turmoil; that the Special Investigation Division [SID] of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office be abolished for colluding with the president in conducting illegal wiretapping; and that the cross-strait service trade pact be blocked,” Yao said.
The first two demands referred to a wiretapping scandal involving Ma, the SID and Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) that has snowballed into a political storm.
Photo: CNA
Ma’s critics have accused him of breaching constitutional information confidentiality regulations by discussing with Huang in person and via telephone details of the SID’s wiretap-based investigation into alleged improper lobbying on behalf of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) before the case was concluded on Sept. 5.
The rally is to begin with a flag-raising ceremony at 10:10am in front of the Legislative Yuan, during which a specially designed flag will be hoisted in place of the national flag to signify the awakening of citizens’ power.
The Citizen 1985 is to call on the government to reinforce direct democracy by lowering the referendum threshold; rationalize the recall mechanism by lowering the threshold to recall elected officials; let people’s voices be heard by lowering the threshold for a party to receive public subsidies and be awarded a legislator-at-large seat; and say no to back-room deals by renegotiating the cross-strait agreement with China.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Taiwan Society president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) said the service trade deal and the cross-strait negotiations on setting up representative offices were parts of Ma’s ploy to use the “one China” framework to wrap up Taiwan as a gift to China.
“We must work together to block the agreement to protect the people of Taiwan,” Chang said.
Taiwan Friends Association president Huang Kun-hu (黃崑虎) said lawmakers should abolish agencies like the SID that were established by an autocratic government for the purpose of cementing its power.
Huang also warned of the potential negative impact that cross-strait treaty could have on the nation’s underprivileged minorities.
Separately yesterday, representatives from several environmentalists groups in Taipei said they are planning to stage an anti-nuclear rally in front of the legislature tomorrow morning to demand the government halt the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮).
“Only when we become a nuclear-free nation will we dare to celebrate National Day, because with nuclear power plants in operation, we are afraid of national disasters,” Green Party Taiwan member Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said.
The radioactive waste produced by the nation’s operating nuclear power plants is a serious problem for Taiwan, said Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖), chief executive of the Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance.
Kuo said that since the nation is unable to find a permanent depository site for the waste, many Taiwanese are worried that they will have to always live under the threat of radiation leakage accidents.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS