Thousands of pensioners yesterday marched on the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to protest proposed pension cuts as an extraordinary legislative session on reform began.
A steady downpour failed to deter hordes of retired public-school teachers, civil servants and military personnel from packing Jinan Road and portions of neighboring side streets for several hours, maintaining a steady staccato of whistle-blowing and chants for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to step down.
“We have to let the government know that even the rain cannot extinguish our anger,” said retired lieutenant general Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), one of the spokesmen for a small cohort of retired military personnel who have camped outside the Legislative Yuan for months.
Photo: CNA
Turnout estimates by protest leaders ranged from 15,000 to 30,000, with parts of Zhongxiao E Road and Zhongshan S Road blocked off as the protesters marched from the Legislative Yuan to the National Police Agency, the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office Building, singing Martial Law-era tunes, such as Unity is Strength and the Central Police University anthem.
“The government has to keep its word, not apply reforms retroactively and not make a mess of reform,” Keng Chi-wen (耿繼文), a former director of the National Police Agency Internal Affairs Office, said from a loudspeaker truck outside the agency building.
Protesters placed flowers on the barricades or fences, with Taiwan Police and Firefighters Alliance head Chen Ho-liang (陳合良) delivering a bouquet to the assembled police officers.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The crowd had rapidly thinned to several hundred after the protesters made their way to Ketagalan Boulevard and back to the Legislative Yuan.
The scope and depth of police defenses continued to break new records, with multiple layers of barricades outside the entrances and alleys around the Legislative Yuan, with neighboring Qingdao Road (青島路) completely blocked off.
Long lines of police officers shadowed protesters throughout their march, with special barricades erected along the Zhongxiao Road and Zhongshan Road intersection to prevent demonstrators from attempting to repeat a previous occupation of the legislative compound.
While officially timed to coincide with Police Day, yesterday’s protest also came as the Legislative Yuan reopened deliberations on pension reform, beginning a new extraordinary session following a brief recess.
Numerous members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) addressed the demonstrators, with KMT caucus convener Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) promising to reject retroactive application of pension reform and to press for a single unitary package that includes a “humanitarian clause” exempting people over a certain age or with disabilities.
National Federation of Teachers’ Unions director-general Huang Yao-nan (黃耀南) called for reforms for all affected groups to be passed together, as well as the simultaneous passage of legislation reforming pension fund management to boost returns.
While reforms aimed at both teachers and civil servants have already passed into cross-caucus talks, the committee review has yet to begin for reforms aimed at ordinary workers and the Executive Yuan has yet to publish an official version of the reforms for military personnel.
‘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
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
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