Despite the government's claims that it is not wasting taxpayers' money on promoting President Chen Shui-bian (
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) complained about the matter at the party's Central Standing Committee meeting. He said that the Government Information Office's (GIO) new practice of retaining all promotional budgets for the purpose of engaging in annual collective purchases of all media promotional air-time and space amounted to manipulation of the media and promoting Chen in advance of a presidential election.
Lien further said that "The GIO's practice could violate the regulations and should be impeached by the Control Yuan."
Instead of entitling all of the government departments to purchase the air time and advertising space in the media to promote their own individual policies and achievements, the GIO has modified traditional practice by combining all departmental promotional budgets to undertake a single annual bulk purchase of media spots.
The total budget is NT$1.1 billion, which the GIO said would entitle the government to effectively bargain with media organizations for optimal air time and advertising space.
The fund covers a NT$200-million promotion, which is scheduled to run between April 1 and June 30, and NT$900 million more for promotions running from July till next March.
Lien, however undermined his case with a glaring factual error. He accusing the government of using powers contained in the Government Procurement Act (
"The KMT is wrong about the law. [The act] was passed last February," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
Kuo Yao-chi (
"Because the old practice was ineffective, we decided to practice bulk purchasing for greater efficiency," said Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
The Legislative Yuan's Education and Culture Committee (
In response, GIO Director-General Arthur Iap (
In its meeting yesterday, the KMT again criticized the president's weekly television show, A-bian Portrait, saying that the show "rapes" the media for four minutes every week.
Presidential Office Spokesman James Huang (
"All news organizations are at liberty to decide whether to broadcast the show or not. We would hope that the opposition parties would stop looking at the Presidential Office's news dealings with their out-of-date thinking," Huang said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner