The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should replace caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in cross-caucus negotiations, New Power Party (NPP) caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said yesterday, adding that the two no longer have mutual trust.
“I hope that the DPP will change who represents them in negotiations,” Hsu said, following earlier protests over the DPP caucus’ refusal to trade committee seats. “If that is not possible, I will work hard to contact individual legislators and sub-groups within the DPP caucus, rather than treating caucus representatives as the only point of contact.”
The NPP’s failure to gain its “wish list” seats on the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee and Transportation Committee threatens to hamper its ability to push key legislative priorities, including proposed supervisory legislation that was a key demand of the 2014 Sunflower movement.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Hsu said that Ker was not qualified to represent his party, because his views were out of line with rank-and-file legislators.
“There was an obvious disparity between Ker’s views and those within the party, because some legislators said that they were willing to switch, but Ker did not give any hint of this when he communicated with us,” he said, reiterating the NPP’s claims that several individual DPP legislators had expressed a willingness to exchange committee seats with NPP legislators.
Under Legislative Yuan rules, cross-party trades can take place only under the advocacy of cross-caucus negotiations.
Hsu said that on matters such as legislation to supervise cross-strait negotiations and agreements, he would no longer assume that Ker represented the position of the DPP caucus and would treat his statements as just a single perspective.
Ker was an exception to close cooperation between the NPP and the DPP prior to last month’s election, with Ker being the only DPP legislator against whom the NPP nominated a rival candidate.
“We just asked them and there is no such thing,” Ker said following a caucus meeting, adding that no DPP legislators have expressed a willingness to switch committee seats with NPP members.
He called Hsu’s criticism a “small matter” and said he would still communicate with the party.
DPP Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said that even if legislators were willing to switch seats, they were obligated to first give priority to whichever DPP legislator wanted to sit on their committee.
“There has probably been some kind of misunderstanding that should clear up as soon as an explanation is made,” Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said ahead of an official trade of committee seats between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP).
The KMT traded a seat on the Education and Culture Committee for the PFP’s Finance Committee seat.
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
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
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
RSS