Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) and Chen Ken-te (陳根德) said they were considering suing Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) after the group released lawmakers’ attendance records and accused the two of being late to meetings.
“According to the Legislative Yuan’s own regulations, legislators are supposed to be in meetings from 9am to 6pm,” CCW executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) told a news conference at the group’s headquarters in Taipei yesterday. “But records show that the average general assembly meeting only lasts 5.9 hours, while committee meetings in February and March were on average 3.1 hours long.”
Aside from adjourning meetings early, delays are also a key factor behind the shorter meeting times, the group said.
“The Education and Culture Committee has the best record with only a 3.2-minute delay on average, while the Transportation Committee has the worst, with an average delay of 28 minutes,” Ho said.
The Sanitation and Environment Committee, as well as Social Welfare Committee, were the next worst offenders, with an average delay of 9.25 minutes, Ho said.
Chen and Chung, conveners of the Transportation Committee and the Sanitation and Environment Committee respectively, expressed their anger when approached by reporters for comment.
“It’s immoral to release information like this,” Chung said. “They’re just making false accusations against us without knowing how hard we work.”
Chung said he would work to put CCW on a list of “unwelcome” groups at the legislature. Chen, on the other hand, accused the group of giving out false information.
“They said that I was 114 minutes late to a [committee] meeting [that started at 9am] — it’s not true,” Chen said. “I was in a classified meeting at 9am sharp, that’s why they couldn’t find it in the records.”
Both lawmakers said they were considering filing lawsuits against CCW if the group did not apologize.
“Legislative transparency is a global trend and the doors of the legislature should be open to all people,” a CCW statement said in response later yesterday. “The threats to put CCW on the ‘unwelcome’ list … just shows that some lawmakers lack the common sense desired in a democracy.”
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS