Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) urged legislators to return their salaries to the state coffers yesterday, accusing them of taking too much time off as they prepared to take a week off ahead of next Saturday's presidential election.
"The newly elected lawmakers started their term 41 days ago, but so far they've only been at work for around 10 days," the group's executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (
What angered the CCW members more was that the lawmakers are taking the next week off to campaign for the presidential election, meaning there will be no more legislative meetings until March 25.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"What does the presidential election have to do with what a lawmaker is supposed to do?" he said.
"A lawmaker is paid NT$180,000 [US$6,000] each month, NT$6,000 per day on average," Ho said. "By the time the presidential election is over, we taxpayers will have paid them about NT$14 million [US$455,000] for nothing!"
The protesters also expressed their disappointment at the level of sincerity legislators and party leaders have shown on making reform within the legislature.
"[Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate] Ma Ying-jeou [
Ku Chung-hua (
"There are more than 30 KMT lawmakers who have not signed the promise -- including the four who were involved in the fracas at [Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate] Frank Hsieh's [謝長廷] campaign office two days ago," Ku said, adding that such disruptive behavior will continue without proper legislative reform.
"We, the voters, should not allow the representatives that we elected to step out of line," he said.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS