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.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths