Citizen Congress Watch chairman Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華) yesterday praised lawmakers for improving their performance in the legislative session that ended in January.
“Compared with the first session [of this legislature], lawmakers made some progress in terms of job performance. For example, overall attendance was better and legislators talked more at meetings too,” Ku told a press conference after the group released the results of an evaluation.
“This shows that our efforts to monitor legislators have not been wasted,” he said.
More than 100 evaluators — including academics, journalists, college students and representatives from civic groups — took part in a review meeting in Taipei yesterday.
Lawmakers in each legislative committee were assigned scores and ranked within their committees based on criteria including his or her attendance and number of legislative proposals and whether he or she had supported bills to increase transparency in the legislature.
Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator (KMT) Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), a member of the Internal Administration Committee, made the most progress in his performance, Citizen Congress Watch said.
Tsai received the lowest ranking in the committee for the first legislative session and accused the group of bias.
His ranking for the second legislative session jumped to second in the committee.
Tsai filed a slander lawsuit against Ku and Citizen Congress Watch executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) after the last evaluation.
“Information we’ve gathered shows that Tsai attended more meetings in the legislature, spoke more at the meetings and took more active part in the law-making process [in the second legislative session], Ho said.
“This is a good thing,” Ho said. “Tsai’s case also shows that Citizen Congress Watch is not biased. As long as you work hard, the public will see.”
Tsai was not available for comment yesterday.
Instead of releasing the names of lawmakers who received the lowest rankings as they did last time, this time the group put lawmakers with lower scores on a “watch list.”
“Some lawmakers are on the watch list not because they performed poorly but because we expect more from them,” Ku said.
The lawmakers who topped their respective committees were KMT legislators Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄) in the Education and Culture Committee and Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) in the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) in the Internal Administration Committee, Twu Shiing-jer (?? in the Foreign and National Defense Committee, Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) in the Economics Committee, Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) in the Finance Committee, Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) in the Transportation Committee, and Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) and William Lai (賴清德) in the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
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
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
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS