A civil legislative watchdog yesterday relaxed its the results of its evaluation of the seventh legislature’s performance in the spring legislative session, which concluded last Friday.
The Congress Watch Foundation listed both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers on its list of the worst 10 lawmakers.
The legislators it considered to have the worst performance were KMT legislators Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), Lin Yi-shih (林益世), Chen Hsiu-ching (陳秀卿) and Liu Chuan-chung (劉銓忠), DPP lawmakers Yu Tien (余天), Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱), Chen Ying (陳瑩) and Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), and Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) Legislator Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤).
The foundation based its rating on the lawmakers’ attendance record, the number of times they registered at legislative committees to make public statements on legislative agenda and the number of proposals they initiated.
Foundation board member Yao Li-ming (姚立明), formerly the deputy director of the anti-Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) campaign, told a press conference that the foundation was willing to put the list up for public scrutiny.
Liu Yi-jun (劉義鈞), another participating board member, said that the 10 legislators topped the worst-performance list because they had the poorest performance in the three aforementioned categories.
The foundation also listed 10 legislators whom they viewed as having the best performance, with DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) being the only DPP member on the list.
Liu, a professor of public affairs at Fo Guang University, said that the results were finalized after a discussion between the foundation’s 17 board members, who are academics in a number of fields.
“We were party blind [when undertaking the evaluation],” Liu said in English.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
RSS