Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday defended the use of cross-party negotiations, which are often criticized for being non-transparent, as a necessary tool with a legal basis to facilitate political communication.
“Cross-party negotiation is actually regulated by Article 68 of the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法), and, while many people call it ‘secret chamber negotiation,’ there are actually quite a lot of people in the ‘secret chamber’ when a cross-party negotiation takes place,” Ker said during a talk with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) at an event for National Hsinchu Senior High School alumni. Both men are alumni of the school.
Ker said that when cross-party negotiations take place, the legislative speaker, the three whips from each caucus and the relevant government officials are present, and “sometimes there can be between 30 and 40 people attending a cross-party negotiation session.”
He said that negotiations over a bill could go on for more than a year, and it is a test whether opposition parties can work with the ruling party.
“If you do not ‘give face’ to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), why would it give you anything?” he said. “So do not stigmatize the system. It is a very difficult mission to have everyone sign on the conclusion.”
Ko agreed with Ko, saying that without negotiations under the table, the student occupation of the Yuan’s main chamber last year or of the Ministry of Education’s courtyard this month would have dragged on and could have intensified.
“Many people criticized me for not punishing the police chief [who arrested student protesters and journalists], but I had to try to keep officers calm,” Ko said. “In turn, I also talked the students into withdrawing before the typhoon struck.”
“This is a way to keep the two sides safe, and this is the importance of negotiations,” Ko said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS