Aboriginal affairs: Names can be Romanized
If a proposal to amend the Statute of Names (姓名條例) gets passed by the legislature, Taiwan's aboriginal citizens would be able to list their original names in Romanized form on their identification cards, along with the current Chinese version of their names. Aboriginal citizens are currently required to name themselves with Chinese names when they apply for documents like identification cards and passports. The Ministry of the Interior decided to heed the Council of Aboriginal Affairs' call to revise the current regulations. The proposed amendment also wants to have it clarified that foreigners and stateless people's applications for Taiwan nationality should be accompanied with their Chinese names. The draft proposal will be submitted to the Executive Yuan next week.
Communications: GIO official at IIC meeting
Government Information Office Deputy Director Lee Cher-jean (李雪津) arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday to attend the 33rd annual conference of the International Institute of Communications (IIC). The IIC general meeting began yesterday and runs for three days. Topics presented at the conference include such issues as broadband and its development, regulations for diversity, young professionals and reinventing commu-nications for the knowledge age. The IIC was founded by senior figures in the communications fields in the US, Japan, Canada and Europe in 1968. The London-based organization has set up branches in more than 70 countries.
Politics: New Party focuses on islands
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said yesterday that the Legislative Yuan should express its stance on the sovereignty of the Tiaoyutai islands. Yok told a news conference that the legislature should not remain silent following former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) claim in a recent Japanese magazine interview that the islands are Japanese territory. New Party Legislator Wu Cheng-tien (吳成典) said he will come up with a proposal urging the legislature to pass a resolution to assert ROC sovereignty over the islands. The resolution will clearly state that the Tiaoyutais are ROC territory and fall under the jurisdiction of the Ilan County Government, Wu added.
Elections: Officials announce dates
The Central Election Commission (CEC) issued a bulletin yesterday for the year-end elections for mayors and city councilors of the nation's two special municipalities -- Taipei and Kaohsiung. According to the bulletin, all those elections will be held on Dec. 7. The voting time will be 8am to 4pm. A total of 52 seats will be up for grabs in the Taipei City Council and 44 seats in the Kaohsiung City Council. One seat in each council will be reserved for aborigines. The bulletin also lists the ceilings of campaign funds for various elections -- NT$24.76 million (US$711,494) for the Taipei mayoral elections; NT$18.42 million for the Kaohsiung mayoral elections; as well as between NT$4 million and NT$4.5 million for the Taipei and Kaohsiung city councilor elections, depending on the number of voters in each constituency.
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