The appeal for internal reform within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continues as several legislators yesterday reiterated their proposal to let Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
KMT legislator Wu Den-yih (
Wu said that with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Wu's proposal came amidst a chorus of voices calling for KMT reform and a transfer of power. He made his proposal during a luncheon with Wang.
Wang has been meeting with KMT legislators over the past two days to hear their remarks in his capacity as deputy KMT chairman, and he will have another and final luncheon with several legislators today.
"With the prerequisite of Lien Chan continuing as party chairman, the KMT could set up a committee to deal with the upcoming legislative elections, to target the election and deal with reform, nominations, coordination between the KMT and People First Party [PFP] and so on," Wu said.
But Wu stressed that the suggestion that Wang and Ma co-convene the committee was not an attempt to form another party or to alter the current power structure within the party.
He said the public should not think the committee would relieve the party chairman of his power.
KMT legislator Apollo Chen (
More radical reform was also called for, with one legislator calling for the resignation of all top-level party officials below the rank of deputy chairman during the luncheon.
"There should be resignations after the election debacle. I suggest that top-level officials, including the deputy chairmen and secretary-general, should all resign and take responsibility for the loss," KMT legislator Lee Chia-chin (
"But since Chairman Lien Chan was elected directly by party members and some people still think that he should not be blamed for the loss, he should not be removed from power right now. Lien Chan should continue to lead and reform the party," Lee said.
But Chen pointed out that other legislators thought Lee's proposal was not feasible, and agreed that the deputy chairman did not have to resign.
Instead, only the secretary-general and top-level officials would have to.
During the luncheon, lawmakers also agreed that the KMT should strive to maintain its position as the second-biggest caucus in the legislature, retaining at least its current 66 seats and keeping Wang in his post after the legislative elections.
Chen quoted Wang as saying that there were some principles for the nomination of legislators: staying united behind the party's candidates, nominating candidates with the potential to win the election, and to respect the candidates' personal choices.
"Further, Wang Jin-pyng also stressed the importance of the quota restriction on nominations for the pan-blue camp. If the PFP nominates more candidates than necessary, the KMT should not follow. We would rather nominate less to ensure a good result," Chen said.
Earlier in the day, the KMT and PFP caucuses denied rumors that the pan-blue camp would jointly nominate candidates for the legislative elections.
Both caucuses said that they would form a strategic alliance, but campaign on their own.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,