Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday called on opposition lawmakers to abide by the law and refrain from interfering with a legally-required policy report that he is scheduled to give today at the Legislative Yuan.
Opposition legislators, calling the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration an "interim government," had threatened to disrupt Yu's report.
Undaunted, Yu said yesterday that he was confident that the lawmaking body would abide by the Constitution and the nation's laws and would allow him to fulfill his duty to give the report.
"In accordance with the Constitution, I will go to the legislature to address the government's policy goals. It is my duty to provide answers to the lawmaking body about government policies," Yu said.
"I believe opposition lawmakers will not and should not make any unwelcome or impolite gestures. After all, I am coming at the invitation of the legislature," Yu said.
Yu made his remarks yesterday afternoon after attending a DPP legislative meeting.
The party's caucus had held the closed-door meeting to discuss ways to counter the opposition lawmakers' plans.
In a bid to help Yu deliver the address as planned and to maintain order on the scene, the caucus decided to establish a three-person task force.
The task force's members are legislators Wang Sing-nan (
The caucus also decided to express its support for former civil service minister Wu Rong-ming (
Yu defended the legitimacy of Chen's presidency and his premiership -- which the opposition camp has refused to recognize.
"There's no question about the appropriateness and legitimacy of President Chen's presidency. He was elected by the people and his victory was certified by the Central Election Commission," Yu said.
"Nor do I see any reason for opposition lawmakers to question the legitimacy of my premiership. I'm appointed by President Chen," Yu said.
People First Party legislative whip Hsieh Chang-chieh (
"We have to express our basic stance. To address Cabinet officials with the titles of `mister' or `miss' instead of their official titles sounds fair and rational, doesn't it?" Hsieh said, adding that the caucus would not decide on precisely what strategy to use during the policy report before discussing the matter with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Legislative Speaker and KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (
"According to the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法), the new premier has to address the legislature on government policy two weeks after taking office," Wang said.
"Lawmakers can choose to forsake their duty and not question the premier but I hope they don't do anything to prevent others exercising their duties," he said.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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