The draft amendment to the Cabinet's Organization Law (
The legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee (法制委員會) yesterday invited the director of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (行政院研考會), Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠), to give a progress report on the draft.
During the meeting, Lin was questioned by the PFP's Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠), the KMT's Huang Ter-fu (黃德福) and the DPP's Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) about government reform.
Huang pointed out that he had heard that Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), secretary-general to the president, "lost his temper" at a meeting last Saturday, when he is said to have cut off further debate on the Cabinet plan, saying that "there's no need to look further into the Cabinet's draft proposal" and that a draft proposal prepared by scholars should be discussed instead. Lin said that he could not remember hearing Chen making the remarks.
Huang went on to say that, according to the account he heard, a majority of those present were afraid to speak up after Chen lost his temper.
Huang also claimed to have been told that one committee member had thumped the table, saying that Chen should not rule out discussion of the Cabinet proposal, but was quickly shot down.
Lin answered Huang by saying that since the Government Reform Committee (政府改造委員會) is a consultative body to the president, it should collect both governmental and non-governmental proposals and each committee member could express his or her opinion.
Huang then lost his patience with Lin, asserting that no one dared say anything after Chen lost his temper and that Lin should admit to the events of the meeting.
Huang then said Chen was biased against the work of the scholars who authored the academic proposal, which was prepared by Ke Cheng-hsiang (柯承享) and Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the Taiwan Thinktank (台灣智庫).
Huang charged that Chen was just looking for a pretext to criticize their work.
Lin once again pointed out that the reform committee was only a consultative body to the president and that the president and the legislature would work together to reform the government.
Lin emphasized that communications between the commission and Nita Ing (
He went on to say that what now remains of the government downsizing process is dealing with differing opinions regarding the names and mergers of government agencies.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching