President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she would respect the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus’ choice of legislative speaker for the incoming ninth legislature following the Jan. 16 elections.
Tsai made the remarks at a DPP caucus meeting in Taipei, which is to set new rules for the caucus and the procedures to appoint a speaker.
“The public is concerned with the Feb. 1 appointment of the new legislative speaker, and my approach is to honor the decision that the caucus will make as a body,” she said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The DPP made history by effecting the first party alternation in the legislature and must meet the expectations of the people by making the legislature a body that is “of the people,” focusing on professionalism and transparency, Tsai said.
“The elections are over and reform starts now,” she said, urging all parties to “abandon prejudices” and “unite in solidarity.”
Tsai said that the DPP would cooperate with other parties on administrative appointments and legislation to “build consensus” and “maximize energy for reform.”
Regarding the appointment of Premier Simon Chang (張善政) on Monday by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Tsai said that the constitutional authority of the Presidential Office would be respected, and the DPP would help ensure political stability and the continued functioning of the government.
“Whether it is called an interim or caretaker Cabinet, the administration must perform its assigned function, just as legislators are to carefully supervise and respect the government, especially giving due respect to civil servants who shoulder the burden of maintaining the continuity in governance,” she said.
Tsai added that she sensed a marked change in the mood of the DPP caucus from its previous meeting before the elections, in which every legislator reported that their seat was at risk, as well as her first address in 2008 to the caucus as DPP chairperson, when the party did not have enough legislators to fill the front row.
Unnamed sources in the DPP said that by tradition, leadership positions within the caucus go to vote only after negotiations by contenders had concluded, and it is likely that the positions for legislative speaker and deputy speaker would be filled in the same way.
Three legislators-elect are believed to be running for speaker: Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) and Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全).
Last week, Tsai spoke against aggressive campaigning for the speaker’s position, which she said might be detrimental to the party’s image, and Ker, Chen and Su’s respective camps toned down their rhetoric.
Reports on Monday said that Tsai’s caucus speech, which required last-minute changes to her schedule, was meant to foil a straw poll covertly planned by an unnamed legislative speaker hopeful, a report DPP Legislator Tsai Chih-chang (蔡其昌) denied.
In other news, in an interview on Monday with the radio channel Super FM98.5, Ker promised to open legislative sessions to citizen reporters, saying that a lack of transparency had been caused by the “too conservative” approach of KMT Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), and that he considers the most important task of the next legislative speaker is “repairing the Legislative Yuan’s reputation.”
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS