The legislature’s plenary session was stalled for the entire day yesterday by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators upset by amendments to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
“No to the martial law-like Parade and Assembly Act! Give the streets back to the people!” DPP legislators shouted as they took over the podium at the Legislative Yuan’s assembly hall yesterday morning.
DPP lawmakers wore headbands and held placards showing their opposition to the Cabinet’s version of the Parade and Assembly Act amendments.
PHOTO: CNA
According to amendments proposed by the Cabinet, organizers must notify police authorities of the event time, location, or parade route five days in advance of any protest — violators could be fined up to NT$50,000 (US$1,480).
Police would reserve the right to prohibit the rally or change the parade route if they believed it would jeopardize national security, social order or public interest.
It would also give the police the right to order the break up of any rally blocking traffic.
“The Cabinet version of the revision gives too much power to the police,” DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said. “It’s anti-democratic, anti-human rights, it’s almost like martial law for rallies.”
KMT legislators, who supported the Cabinet version, condemned the DPP for stalling the meeting and holding back reviews of amendments to the Tobacco and Alcohol Tax Act (菸酒稅法) and the Income Tax Act (所得稅法).
“I don’t understand why the DPP is blocking bills related to public welfare,” KMT legislative caucus secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊纓) said.
“The KMT has a majority and is in control of the Procedure Committee,” DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said. “If they really care about public welfare, they should have put the tax reform bills before the controversial Assembly and Parade Act revision.”
The real cause of the stalemate does not lie with the DPP’s boycott, “but the absolute incompetence of the Ma administration,” he said.
At press time, DPP lawmakers were still occupying the podium, while most KMT lawmakers had left the venue.
The Taiwan Association for Human Rights also condemned the Cabinet version.
“The Assembly and Parade Act amendments proposed by the Cabinet and certain KMT legislators are no different from the original version as it still requires mandatory advance notice to the police and maintains buffer zones [around certain government offices],” the group said in a statement.
“Moreover, it provides a new measure through which violators may be fined repeatedly for the same act [if it continues],” it said.
Earlier in the day, the DPP had said passage of the revised act would jeopardize Taiwan’s freedom of assembly.
“The Assembly and Parade Act is an evil law in its truest form. Our stance is very clear. We want to abolish it. It is the same stance upheld by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) when the KMT was the opposition party,” DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) told a press conference at the DPP Caucus.
Tsai vowed his party would fight the KMT tooth and nail on the issue.
DPP Department of Youth Development director Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said if the amendments were passed, Taiwan would turn into a police state, citing the example of the visit by Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last November.
“Such behavior would be legalized if the [amendment] were passed. It means in the future, as long as Ma or anyone from his administration wishes not to see any protests, authorities could deploy as many policemen as they wanted to keep protestors away from officials,” he said.
He went on to say the KMT could easily put a halt to the upcoming DPP-sponsored May 17 anti-Ma rally by registering the right to use the land around the parade route with the local precincts.
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