Legal professionals monitoring the confirmation of 15 grand justice nominees breathed a sigh of relief that the process ended smoothly and without confrontation.
"The legislative performance in confirming the 15 grand justice nominees alleviated the anxiety generated by the lawmakers' annoying boycott last year of confirmation votes for Control Yuan members, a grand justice nominee and leaders of the Examination Yuan," said Ku Chung-hwa (
"Lawmakers, on average, acted moderately in wielding their legislative power to examine these nominees during the weeklong interpellation," Ku said after the confirmation vote concluded last night.
Ku's association, comprising six prominent legal, academic and women's rights groups, sent delegates to monitor each day of the legislative confirmation process.
The delegates observing the interpellation completed an assessment of the legislators based on the questions they asked.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Shen Chih-hui (
Last Thursday, Shen asked 40 oversimplified true or false questions of six nominees, the association said in describing her performance as "low class."
Lee Yuan-deh (
"It is extremely dangerous to treat constitutional debates as a matter of yes or no," Lee said, adding that the oversimplification was helpful neither for judging the competence of the nominees nor examining potential Constitutional disputes.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Kuei-lien (鄭貴蓮) was judged the second worst among the legislative inquisitors.
"Her interpellation centered on criticism of Hualien District Chief Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih (
The association regretted seeing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Yi-wen's (
"It is improper to force the examinees to answer questions according to the lawmaker's personnel preferences," the assessment said.
Other lawmakers judged by the association as performing poorly were Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和), Sheu Yuan-kuo (許淵國), Chao Liang-yen (趙良燕) and Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) of the PFP, Chang Tsai-mei (張蔡美) and Hsu Shu-po (許舒博) of the KMT and Hou Shui-sheng (侯水盛) of the DPP.
"Even though Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Chen Chien-min (
The association said that DPP Legislator You Ching (
"You fully respected his examinees as he gave them enough time to respond to his questions," the association said.
You also performed excellently on choosing questions for individual nominees in accordance with their legal specialities, the assessment said.
Another DPP lawmaker, Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), was graded as second best. DPP legislators Parris Chang (張旭成), Lin Yu-sheng (林育生), Jao Yung-ching (趙永清) and Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟) were also rated in the top 10.
Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) was the only KMT legislator deemed by the association members as doing a professional job during the interpellation. The association also praised PFP lawmakers Lin Te-fu (林德福) and Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交) for asking high-quality questions.
Two independent lawmakers, Su Yin-kuei (蘇盈貴) and Cheng Yu-cheng (鄭余鎮), were endorsed by the association for their preparation.
DPP Legislator Lin Yu-sheng (林育生), who ranked sixth, said he appreciated the assessment. He said he was convinced that lawmakers will perform better in future confirmation tasks after furthering legislative reforms such as modifying electoral rules.
"But I regret that the grand justice nominees bypassed questions involving politically sensitive issues. Some of these questions are not really controversial topics and, as their duty is to judge legal controversies, they should fulfill the role in explaining to the public about what is right and true," Lin said.
The evaluation summarized that lawmakers on average maintained a rational attitude in examining the nominees.
"But it is arguable that the legislators still brought too many trifling issues and political battles into the weeklong interpellation of the grand justice nominees," it concluded.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS