After a series of "bottom up" consultation meetings around the country the KMT's Reform Committee (
At the same time, the Reform Committee devised a restriction against party office nominations as well as public service nominations by those who have violated criminal laws, in an effort to eliminate the party's "black gold (黑金)" image.
After a humbling defeat in the March 18 presidential election that ended 54 years of party rule over Taiwan, the KMT is now trying to force itself to undergo a top-to-bottom image change.
Despite the establishment of a new reform committee, however, pushing the KMT toward transformation has proven a slow task.
"I have heard from many grassroots groups and individuals who mistrust the KMT's sincerity to carry out reform. I hereby urge the party to act on reform as soon as possible," said Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷), a legislator and KMT reform committee member, at yesterday's meeting to discuss how to institute democratic practices within the party.
According to a proposal drawn up by Huang Te-fu (黃德福), many top-level positions in the KMT are to be directly elected by the membership, including the party chairman, Central Standing Committee (中常委) and the Central Advisory Committee (中評委).
Deputy head of the KMT's Department of Organizational Affairs, Lee Po-yuan (李伯元), indicated that the reform plans will be completed by the end of this year so that the party chairman will be directly elected by the full membership.
Deputy convener of the committee Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said that decisions related to party reform will be left to the Central Standing Committee and will then serve as reform guidelines once they are approved at the party's provisional National Congress (臨時全代會), which is set to take place in mid-June.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
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