A group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) young turks will propose a party reform plan this week, Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said after resigning as the party's deputy secretary-general yesterday.
Tuan said the group would review and reflect on three key issues: national identity, the party's core values and its nomination system.
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) suffered a crushing defeat in the March 22 presidential election -- the latest in a string of electoral failures that included the Jan. 12 legislative election and the local government poll in December 2005.
The party's Central Executive Committee on Thursday established a task force composed of party members who had served as secretary-general of the 21-year-old party to review the party's policy.
Tuan said yesterday that pro-localization should not be the only distinction between the DPP and other parties and should not be used as a tool to attack fellow party members.
He said that the party should seek to regain the public's trust that it would put its core values into practice if it returns to power and would end abuses of the party's nomination system.
Joining Tuan were Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (
At a separate setting yesterday, Hsieh dismissed a Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) report that said his decision to retract his resignation as party chairman had angered President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who wanted Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to take over as acting chairman.
Hsieh on Friday withdrew his resignation, which he had tendered earlier last week following his election defeat. He agreed to stay until a new chairman is elected in May.
The paper quoted an anonymous source from the Presidential Office as saying that Hsieh initially agreed that Chang should take over as acting chairman.
"What newspapers said is not necessarily the truth," Hsieh said.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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