President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged environmental groups to remain partners with the incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, inviting them to monitor the government’s policies.
Tsai made the remarks during a meeting with the representatives of several environmental and animal protection groups, including Taiwan Environmental Protection Union president Liou Gin-show (劉俊秀), Life Conservationist Association executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳), and Taromak Community Development Association executive director Wkolinga of the Rukai community, at DPP Party headquarters in Taipei.
Tsai said that the DPP has stood with the groups in the past and wishes to remain as their partner in environmental issues after becoming the governing party next month.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, REUTERS
“Please do not give up on us,” Tsai said. “If there is something you would like us to do, but we fail to fulfill your expectations, you can remind us anytime. If reminding us once does not work, please speaker louder, and if reminding us twice does not work, you may speaker even louder. And when it is necessary — I say when it is necessary — you may hit the table and yell at us.”
Tsai said environmental issues would be among her government’s priorities, adding that the government needs non-governmental organizations as partners, because they are more professional in dealing with issues such as pollution prevention, conservation of local ecology, preserving endangered species, sources of renewable energy and food safety.
Tsai spoke with the representatives behind closed doors for about one hour and most of the participants said they were satisfied with Tsai’s responses to their concerns, but added that they would closely monitor the actions of Tsai’s government as soon as she is sworn in.
In other news, premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) plans to organize several policy symposiums and a “consensus camp” prior to the presidential inauguration on May 20 to help future Cabinet members familiarize themselves with policies and government operations, and help them get to know each other better.
“Lin is planning to organize six policy symposiums to allow future Cabinet members to discuss policy directions, understand policy proposals, and produce consensus,” Cabinet spokesperson-designate Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) told a news conference yesterday.
“The meetings would take place on Tuesday and Friday afternoons, starting today,” Tung said.
Six policy symposiums have been planned, which would focus on Tsai’s policy direction in general, as well as the five innovative research projects, major social stability and political reform policies, interaction between the legislature and the government, and budget reviews and execution, Tung said.
“To let Cabinet members get to know each other better, Lin Chuan will also organize a two-day ‘consensus camp’ on Saturday and Sunday next week,” Tung said, adding that details are still being discussed.
As for the incoming minister of transportation and communications, and the minister of the interior, Tung said that the two ministers-to-be would be introduced to the public before the end of this month.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching