The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration of treating Taiwan as its laboratory, criticizing a number of the government’s recent livelihood policies it described as chaotic and flip-flopping.
Two days after the first-month anniversary of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) taking office, the KMT held a press conference in Taipei yesterday morning to urge Tsai’s government to refrain from flip-flopping on public policies.
“Since the ruling party was sworn in, it has treated the whole of Taiwan as its own laboratory,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Cheng Shih-wei (鄭世維) told the news conference.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Singling out Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), Cheng said Hochen has resorted to price hikes for almost all of his transportation policies, as evidenced by his plans to cancel toll-free hours on freeways at night during the Dragon Boat Festival and increase parking fees at tourist destinations.
Turning to the Ministry of Labor’s plan to drop a proposed amendment to Article 23 of the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法施行細則) that cancels seven national holidays for private-sector employees, Cheng said the ministry had said before that the seven holidays would still be commemorated, but they would be workdays.
“Nevertheless, now the ministry is to restore the holidays, with an attached proviso that should another potential amendment by the ministry be passed in the next legislative session, these holidays might be canceled again,” Cheng said, adding that the ministry’s policy U-turns have left workers clueless as to what to do.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢) said the gift given by the DPP government to the people on its first-month anniversary is an endless string of price increases, including sales tax, parking fees at popular tourist destinations, and water and electricity rates.
“These policies are simply too much for the people to bear. Yet Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) denied any plans to impose the price hikes, a statement also endorsed by Premier Lin Chuan (林全),” Lee said.
Supervision from opposition parties is what motivates the ruling party to move forward, Lee said, urging Tsai’s administration to humbly accept advice and engage in self-reflection.
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