As the campaign for next month's elections heats up, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday appealed to voters with what it called "positive solutions to serious problems in Taiwan" by announcing the 10 bills it vowed to pass into law.
The 10 bills, including the political party law (政黨法), the lobbying bill (遊說法), the administrative zoning law (行政區劃法), the fiscal discipline law (財政紀律法) and the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), will be the KMT caucus' priority, according to the party.
"These 10 bills illustrate that, as the country's biggest oppos-ition party, the KMT does not only criticize the government or ex-pose abuse cases relentlessly, but also works hard to provide positive solutions to the country's problems," KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday, during a press conference to introduce the 10 bills.
Stressing the party's reform efforts, Ma said the political party law and the lobbying bill made a priority of regulating political contributions, lobbying and political parties. The fiscal discipline law, on the other hand, could prevent the government from wasting the country's money or acting corruptly, like he said it was now.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) and Taipei county commissioner candidate Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) attended the press conference to promote the administrative zoning law.
There are only two special municipalities in the country: Taipei City and Kaohsiung City. The KMT is promoting the merger of Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung cities and counties, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is against the idea.
Upon announcing each of the 10 main bills, Ma put a small pack of Chinese medicine into a big pot, a gesture to symbolize that the bills will work as the medicine for what the party called an "ill Taiwan." The party will continue its campaigning efforts and launch its print-version campaign ads today.
Meanwhile, in an attempted response to the KMT's parade that will be held on Nov. 26 to protest the DPP government's recent scandals, the DPP will launch a nationwide march on Nov. 27 to promote its local-elections campaign and denounce the KMT's accusations.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday announced the campaign activity, as decided by the central executive committee.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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