The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus is planning to tell each of its legislators to prepare 100 motions for budgetary cuts and suspensions and demand a separate vote for all 3,500 motions if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) tries to force disputed issues or budget items to a floor vote, sources said.
The KMT caucus will not boycott Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) general report to the legislature, which is scheduled for tomorrow, the sources said, adding that it would insist its legislators focus their efforts on issues concerning cross-strait relations and tourism.
KMT legislators Sufin Siluko (廖國棟), Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Alicia Wang (王育敏) are to lead inquiries into the topics that the caucus thinks exposes government vulnerabilities, and the KMT might propose an alternative pension reform scheme that its think tanks are working on, the sources said.
The sources said the KMT caucus is wary of the DPP’s majority in the legislature and the motions are to be used as leverage in negotiations with the government.
Chiang yesterday said that while the government has a duty to avoid wasteful spending, the opposition party has an obligation to “guard the purse strings on behalf of the public.”
Since the caucus had told lawmakers to target specific items that are “unreasonable or bloated,” the sheer number of KMT motions “is not the point” of the exercise, Chiang said.
Chiang also took aim at Lin, saying his Cabinet had underperformed in its first 100 days in office.
“Lin must show the public where the beef is, instead of wasting breath telling us what a good job he has done,” he said.
KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said the party is to emphasize cross-strait issues, in addition to examining the budget.
He said he would like the DPP caucus to “show goodwill” to “a part of the Taiwanese people” that the KMT represents, because the legislature is a “collegial institution” that requires “the majority to respect the minority,” adding: “The DPP cannot continue winner-takes-all practices like in the last session and force a floor vote every time it disagrees with the KMT.”
KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said KMT think tanks are working on an alternative pension reform plan for public sector employees, and would pay close attention to the government’s “long-term care 2.0” plan, a proposed amendment of The Electricity Act (電業法) and the central government’s budget.
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:
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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