Much has been made of Friday’s cancelation of a top-level meeting to seek a resolution to the student protests that are being staged in the Legislative Yuan over the controversial cross-strait service trade pact.
The meeting was “postponed” after Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) rejected President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) request for a discussion at the Presidential Office over the protests.
The Chinese-language United Daily News called this latest stand-off between Ma and Wang the second round of their political struggle, which began in September last year.
At that time, Ma, as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), made it clear that Wang should no longer remain in his post in light of his alleged role in a case of reported influence-peddling.
Wang, a 73-year-old veteran lawmaker, was the clear winner in the first round, having kept both his party membership and his job as speaker, despite Ma’s efforts to dethrone him.
The Presidential Office said that when Ma called Wang late on Thursday to invite him to the meeting, Wang said: “Sure! When?”
The office then arranged a meeting for 11am the next day and notified Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺).
The purpose of the meeting was to try to find a way to end the student-led occupation of the Legislature, deal with the disputes over the cross-strait service trade agreement and discuss the legislature’s handling of the pact.
Ma’s office said that about half an hour before the scheduled start of the meeting, Wang called Timothy Yang (楊進添), Presidential Office secretary-general, to say that he could not attend and later sent a written explanation.
The Presidential Office said that Ma called Wang twice and KMT Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) called Wang a third time, but Wang could not be swayed.
At about noon, a presidential spokesperson confirmed that the meeting had been postponed and said that the president was supporting the speaker’s position that the legislature would seek to resolve the issues.
Wang later issued a statement listing his reasons for declining the meeting, and disclosed the information about the unsuccessful telephone calls made by Ma and Tseng.
Political commentators said that the underlying message in Wang’s statement was “I call the shots in the Legislative Yuan, but if I’d gone to the Presidential Office, I would have had to listen to you [the president].”
Political experts said Wang has publicly promised to refrain from using his authority to forcefully remove the students.
Therefore, Wang would not welcome being given directives by Ma, nor would he want to be seen to endorse the positions of the president and the premier, who have both been criticized for trying to push the cross-strait agreement through the legislature.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS