The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday urged Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
On Wednesday, Ma vowed during a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that his party would push the "sunshine bills" and pass related bills in September when the new legislative session opens.
In response, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
Ker called on Ma to order KMT lawmakers not to boycott these laws in the Procedure Committee.
"Ma may not understand that KMT lawmakers have been blocking the `sunshine bills' for the past few years, and we are glad to see that Ma is finally willing to deal with the laws that could do something about the KMT's stolen assets," Ker said.
The "sunshine bills" refer to a series of proposed anti-corruption laws, namely, draft laws on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties, a lobbying bill, a bill covering political parties, a statute governing the Ministry of Justice's anti-corruption bureau, amendments to the Act on Property Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法), the Legislators' Conduct Act (立法委員行為法) and the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法).
"If Ma could allow the passage of the statute on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties, real political reconciliation would eventually take place," Ker said.
DPP spokesman Tsai Huang-liang (
The DPP hoped that Ma would carry out his promise and enable the passage of the laws when the new legislative session starts in September, Tsai said.
DPP strategy
Meanwhile, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday said that a provisional nomination systemwould enable the party to respond immediately to any move by the opposition to initiate a no-confidence vote against the premier.
Yu told the DPP's legislative caucus that "this will make the opposition think twice" before calling for a confidence vote, and would also significantly reduce the strategy's chance of success.
During a meeting of the DPP's Central Executive Committee on Wednesday, the party adopted a provisional nomination system to prepare for a scenario in which the legislature is dissolved after a successful no-confidence vote against Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
Yu said that unless preparations were made in advance, many legislators might be caught off-guard because a new election must be held within 60 days and only those who have registered their household in a constituency for at least four months are qualified to run there.
In addition, starting from the next legislature, the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan will be reduced from the current 225 to 113, Yu added.
He said that the party would decide on its legislative candidates using opinion surveys.
After failing to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) over alleged corruption scandals surrounding his in-laws and close aides last month, the People First Party (PFP) is planning to make a second attempt to recall Chen when the legislature begins its next session in late September.
In addition, the PFP is also considering whether to launch a no-confidence vote against Su.
The PFP and its pan-blue ally the KMT initiated a motion to recall Chen last month, but the motion failed to get the necessary support of a two-thirds majority in the legislature.
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