Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators who were members of the former New Tide faction denied yesterday that they had considered resigning their legislative seats en masse.
DPP Legislator William Lai (
Therefore, he said, it was simply media speculation that former "New Tide" members had thought of resigning from the legislature as a group.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Lai was responding to a report in yesterday's Chinese-language China Times which said several lawmakers had thought of resigning together.
The newspaper said the mass resignation would serve as a warning to party headquarters after the DPP decided to give President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) a chance to explain himself after the "state affairs fund" indictments were handed down, but that the legislators had been dissuaded by senior party members.
First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) and three of Chen's presidential aides have been indicted on charges of corruption and forgery.
While president, Chen enjoys constitutional immunity from prosecution.
DPP Legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) and Lee Wen-chung (李文忠), both former New Tide members, announced on Monday that they would resign their seats in order to live up to a promise they made before the indictments that they would ask Chen to step down if he was "involved or indicted" in the case.
Lee said yesterday that the pair did not know what other legislators might do since other lawmakers might consider resignation a personal matter and would not talk about it with other people.
He said he had heard "indirectly" that some legislators would like to follow the pair's example.
He refused to comment, however, when asked if he felt other DPP lawmakers should resign.
During a press conference on Monday, Lee and Lin said they had not made their decision together, but only that they knew the other had thought about resigning.
Lee denied yesterday that they gave up their seats as a way of supporting Premier Su Tseng-chang (
"It is a pity that some DPP members still consider [our resignation] a conspiracy [to highlight Su's strength in running for the presidency]," Lee said.
Lin and Lee paid a farewell visit to the DPP caucus yesterday.
Although caucus whips Ker Chien-ming (
Lin said he would continue dedicating himself to reform of the government, advocating Taiwan's independence and promoting cultural issues.
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
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
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