The Alliance for Monitoring Pension Reform — a coalition of retired and incumbent military personnel, public servants and teachers — is to stage a rally on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei today as a pension reform conference is held at the Presidential Office Building.
Alliance convener Huang Yao-nan (黃耀南) said members have been taking turns on a hunger strike for more than 96 hours, but have not been invited to the conference.
Because of that, the alliance will express its opinions at a street rally, Huang said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
He said there would be at least 30,000 people at the protest.
The group applied for a permit to rally on Ketagalan Boulevard and Zhongshan S Road and a stage was being set up near Jingfu Gate (景福門) with a big screen, and having protesters “pass by” the Presidential Office Building remains a possibility, Huang said.
In September last year, an alliance rally was ridiculed by netizens as “precisely what civil servants would do,” with protesters dispersing at 5pm.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Members have vowed to “show their true strength” this time by “dashing and ramming” those in the Presidential Office Building so they know that public opinion opposes them.
“The pension reform proposal unveiled on Thursday outlines massive cuts to government spending on pensions,” Huang said.
Under the current system, monthly pensions paid to public servants is calculated on their insured monthly salary, he said.
The reform proposal would see pensions based on the average insured salary of the final 15 years of employment, Huang said, adding that retired military personnel and public servants would be paid only half of what they would have received under the old system.
“This is a trick. Its real purpose is to cut wages,” National Civil Servant Association president Harry Lee (李來希) said.
After 30 years of service military personnel and civil servants who entered the system under the new rules would receive pensions at a rate of 51 percent of their income, Lee said.
For those with 25 years of service, the ratio would be 42 percent, he said.
Lee said the proposal would damn lower-ranking public servants to low-income lifestyles.
“Service years that count toward the base for determining pensions is capped at 35, so why would people serve for 40 years?” Lee asked.
The government’s cuts would not stop at military personnel, public servants and teachers, he said.
Lee said that the 18 percent preferential interest rate — which the reform seeks to phase out over a six-year period — “was part of pensions for military personnel, public servants and teachers, as they had lower incomes compared with other sectors in the past.”
Those who opted to take their pension as a lump sum, if they are 85 now, “would not be able to live” six years from now, Lee said, adding that “the 18 percent preferential rate definitely cannot be lowered to 0 percent.”
Lee said Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) should discuss the issue with him on a TV talk show.
“If Chen has a tight schedule, perhaps Minister [Without Portfolio and Pension Reform Committee Executive Director] Lin Wan-i (林萬億) could take his place,” he said.
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