The New Power Party (NPP) legislative caucus yesterday held its first meeting, with members reaching a consensus on the division of labor to promote amendments in line with the party’s focus on progressive changes.
The caucus pledged to promote various bills, including amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), which had met resistance in the last legislature.
The party’s “transitional justice” task force is to be convened by Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), with his team working on reclaiming ill-gotten party assets and supervising changes to high-school curriculum guidelines — an issue that sparked serious controversy last year.
A task force on “returning rights to the people” is to be headed by Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, who is to push for changes to the Referendum Act, the recall act and other related laws.
Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), a lawyer and NPP candidate who lost in the contest for Hsinchu City’s legislative seat to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), are to be in charge of a team on legislative reforms.
NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) is to be in charge of drafting laws against media monopolization and oversee the operations of the National Communications Commission.
NPP Chairman and Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) is to lead a team that deals with the institutionalization of the presidential transition of power, with a public hearing set to be held on Friday.
Huang said he would also convene a “non-nuclear homeland” team, which plans to send a request to Taiwan Power Co after the Lunar New Year holiday for the caucus to visit the Second Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and review plans for the power plant’s retirement and its storage pools for spent fuel rods.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
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