New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidates yesterday appeared outside the Ministry of Education (MOE) building to show their support for the students protesting against the ministry’s curriculum guideline changes, and vowed to take legal action against Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) and police officers over the death of a young activist.
The anti-curriculum guideline change protest intensified after student protester Dai Lin (林冠華) was found dead on Thursday in what is believed to have been a suicide.
The protesters yesterday at about 1:33am began breaking down police barricades and scaling the walls to enter the courtyard of the ministry offices and staged a sit-in there.
NPP legislative candidates, including Neil Peng (馮光遠), Freddy Lim (林昶佐), Ko Shao-chen (柯劭臻) and Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), yesterday appeared outside the ministry building to show their support.
“I would like to say that I condemn the minister for causing the horrible political suicide through disclosing confidential information,” said Ko, who is also an attorney.
“We will file lawsuits against Wu, Zhongzheng First Police Precinct Police Chief Chang Chi-wen (張奇文) and police officers who made the arrests of student activists who stormed the ministry building on July 23 for leaking confidential information,” Ko told the crowd.
Ko said Lin would probably not have killed himself if the ministry and the police did not tell his school to visit his family, putting more pressure on him.
“The NPP’s lawyers will continue to pursue the responsibility of the judiciary and the ministry,” Ko said.
NPP Hsinchu City candidate Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), who is also a lawyer, has been at the protest scene since early yesterday morning to provide legal assistance to the protesters.
The NPP also issued a statement, calling on the ministry to halt its implementation of the new curriculum guidelines, while urging the ministry to make a law on revising the curriculum that includes a mechanism to allow the participation of students and teachers in the process.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS