The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called for a Cabinet reshuffle or Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) resignation, during the first meeting of the new legislative session attended by Lin and his Cabinet.
In response to queries about the calls for his resignation from the KMT and former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), who made the call on Monday, Lin said that there could be adjustments to the Cabinet, but a “Cabinet reshuffle is not under consideration.”
Before Lin’s scheduled address to the general assembly, about 30 KMT lawmakers clad in blue shirts, held banners and placards in the general assembly chamber, chanting slogans demanding Lin’s resignations if a Cabinet reshuffle is not planned and criticizing what they said were policy failures and flip-flops of the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The group sat in the front of the speaker’s podium throughout Lin’s address and rose up to chant slogans again after Lin finished speaking.
The group later held a gathering outside the chamber, holding balloons that signified government policies before popping them.
“We expected some meat in the premier’s policy address, but all we heard was hot air,” KMT Secretary-General Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said.
Lin in his policy address reiterated the Tsai administration’s emphases on industrial transformation and upgrade, the construction of a safe and just society — including plans for public housing, food safety, long-term care services, pension reforms and transitional justice — equality among different ethnic groups in education and culture, enhancement of defense autonomy, the “new southbound policy” and a cross-strait relationship that centers on maintaining the “status quo” and based on the principles of transparency, public participation and legislative oversight.
Meanwhile, lawmakers raised the issue of pension reform during yesterday’s session.
People First Party Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said that a wide participation in the discussion of possible pension reforms “would not deliver good results.”
“The problem is simple: We have too few people paying and too many people receiving. The government should let the people know that they would not have a cent if the government goes bankrupt,” he said.
He said that there are certain things that would need “bold resolve” rather than “trying to attend to everyone’s concerns and ending up with nothing.”
New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) urged the Executive Yuan to resume an investigation launched in 2005 by former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) to find out how many pensioners have combined their years of service at government agencies with their years of service at KMT-affiliated organizations.
Citing former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) and former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) as examples, Hsu said “this should be a task that no one, regardless of their political affiliation, would oppose.”
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