Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), responding to veteran political activist Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) remarks targeting the party on Friday, yesterday said that the idea of maintaining the “status quo” does not contradict the Resolution on Taiwan’s Future in the DPP charter.
Lin said that Tsai’s “maintaining the ‘status quo’” is a mystery to him, asking whether it is so hard to follow the DPP’s charter on this issue.
In response, Tsai said that the basic idea of “maintaining the ‘status quo’” is calling for open, transparent and fairer dealings in cross-strait affairs and public participation in policies, which are “not inconsistent” with the resolution.
Photo: Chen Hui-ping, Taipei Times
Tsai said that maintaining the “status quo,” as she has repeatedly said, is to maintain a peaceful Taiwan Strait and the stable development of cross-strait relations.
Various surveys have shown that the idea has the support of an absolute majority among Taiwanese, and could be a foundation for Taiwanese solidarity and keeping the Taiwan Strait peaceful, giving Taiwanese the time and energy to carry out internal reforms, she said.
Lin also spoke about the DPP having yielded just 13 electoral districts to rising, so-called “third political forces.”
Tsai responded that she would hope a candidate who is most likely to win would emerge from the process of nominations, mediation and integration with the smaller parties.
Tsai said she could empathize with Lin’s concerns, adding that she believes that no one cares more than she does about whether the legislature and its agenda are to be dominated by progressive forces after the next election.
“The candidates do not have to be DPP-nominated,” she said.
Referring to the relationship the DPP developed with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in his campaign last year, Tsai said: “[The party] would have relative flexibility in the legislative election as well.”
“However, mediated integration must be quick,” Tsai said, adding that as many of the candidates of the third force are first-timers, they might need a longer period of preparation.
Tsai said that the DPP must also take its supporters’ feelings into account, and since the DPP is a democratic organization, the chairperson is not the one to have the final say on nominations, which should abide by the party’s system and mechanism, with participation from supporters.
Only when the process has been completed will supporters be ready to back the candidates of the third political force who emerge from the integration, she added.
FATAL FIRE: The health department is trying to contact the inspector who visited the site of the illegal nursing home to ask why they did not advise follow-up checks The Taipei City Government yesterday said that a health department inspector last year had visited the site of a long-term care facility in Neihu District (內湖) after receiving a report questioning its status. A fire broke out at the facility on Tuesday afternoon, killing three people. The Taipei Fire Department said that it received a report about a fire on the first floor of a four-story residential building on Kangning Road Sec. 1 at 2:38pm on Tuesday, firefighters arrived at 2:43pm and the fire was put out by 3:07pm. The firefighters found three men in beds and rushed them to hospital for
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hao (王浩) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Monday called for security improvements to the MRT, as fare evasion has increased more than 13-fold on the metropolitan railway system over the past five years. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has spoken out against fare evasion and other contraventions of MRT regulations, but since he took office in 2015 the number of contraventions has more than doubled, Wang said, adding that there were 537 cases in 2015 compared with 959 last year. A video was posted to YouTube in June showing people how to evade paying a fare,
FEELING MISUNDERSTOOD: Media speculation has fueled confusion about the KMT’s reasons for skipping a Chinese forum and delaying an AIT meeting, party sources said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sunday said that it is not seeking to improve relations with the US or China at the expense of the other, and that its relations with the countries would be topic-based. The party has faced questions over its foreign policy after it on Monday last week announced its withdrawal from the annual Straits Forum and delayed planned talks with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). The party has also taken a tough stance on the importation of US meat containing ractopamine, while also lambasting China for increasing its military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. Following
Yuchi Township (魚池) fishers have appealed to the Nantou County Government for help in dealing with an invasive fish species in Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), where it has devastated the local ecosystem. Fishers at Sun Moon Lake have been using electrofishing in an attempt to eliminate the giant snakehead fish — found in Africa and Southeast Asia — but they have struggled to keep up with the growing population of the species, which breeds during September and October, the county government said on Monday. The county has contacted researchers at National Tsing Hua University, saying it hoped they could come up
RSS