President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday lauded Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators' efforts to pass the amendment to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) on Monday, vowing to assert the party's dominance in the legislature.
The KMT-dominated legislature pushed through the disputed amendment during a hastily arranged extra legislative session on Monday amid fistfights, yelling, shouting and pushing.
Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, said his party did not let the public down because it helped push through the legal revision in spite of opposition from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
“It is not in the interest of one party, but the whole nation and the people,” he said.
“It will benefit not only the two parties, but also the public,” Ma said while chairing the party's weekly Central Standing Committee.
Ma criticized the DPP, saying it had really earned its name as an “opposition” party as it had opposed the bill simply for the sake of opposition.
“It's not a good phenomenon in a democracy,” he said.
“We respected the opinions of the minority parties, but they still boycotted the bill for no reason. I fully support the action taken by the KMT legislative caucus and hope to push through more bills using the same method,” the president said.
Ma said many were disappointed with the KMT because it could not pursue its agenda despite its legislative majority.
“It is not my problem alone, but that of the whole party,” he said. “As the chairman, I must change the situation. We are not the ruling party if we cannot make such changes.”
Ma's remark drew a round of applause from committee members.
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世), who spoke before Ma during the meeting, threw down the gauntlet, saying the KMT legislative caucus would not seek war, but neither would it shy away if compromises fail to guarantee smooth passage of legislation.
Nonetheless, he urged the executive branch to strengthen its communications with the legislative branch.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS