The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is to launch a photography exhibition in Taipei to celebrate the party’s 30th anniversary, with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) reaffirming the DPP’s democratic ideals.
“A 30-year old party is like a 30-year old person, and it should be mature and stable to take on responsibility,” said Tsai, who is also the DPP’s chairperson, at the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
The party has to push the nation forward and live up to the public’s expectations, she added.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
DPP members clashed with the establishment during the Martial Law era, and they engaged in elections and launched reforms in the democratic era, she said.
“Something has not changed over the past 30 years. It is the party’s special feeling for the public,” she said.
“The DPP has spent 30 years to prove it is a party worthy of trust. The 30-year-old DPP has returned to power and has to steadily develop the nation on the public’s mandate,” she said.
The exhibition will be held at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei, which will display images of DPP members and supporters and their achievements in advancing democracy, the party said.
Five short documentaries, collectively titled “Our Democratic Era,” will also be screened.
The DPP will hold its Central Executive Committee meeting at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Wednesday next week, where the party announced its formation in 1986.
Asked whether the DPP would invite former party chairmen, including former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), to participate in celebration events, DPP spokesman David Huang (黃適卓) said the party had not discussed the matter.
Meanwhile, the DPP expressed its support for the government’s planned reform of a privileged pension system, which counts the term of service of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members in the KMT toward their seniority in the government, while granting them an 18 percent preferential savings interest rate.
A government report in 2007 showed that the nation had to pay an additional NT$300 million (US$9.55 million) to 581 such people in the pension system, DPP spokesman Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) said.
“The nation’s resources should not be spent on benefiting the members of a single party,” Yang said.
Although the government abolished the regulations enabling the privileged pension system in December 1987, the government still has to pay preferential pension to KMT members who joined the party prior to that date, including former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), causing government expense to balloon, Yang said.
The system has misappropriated government assets and undermined social justice, so it has to be abolished, he said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS