Lawmakers yesterday quarreled over a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposal — which it later passed using its legislative majority — to change the legislative agenda so that the review process of the president’s nominations for Judicial Yuan president, vice president and five grand justices could begin.
DPP lawmakers arrived in the chamber early to make sure that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers could not occupy the speaker’s podium, a scenario the former had been expecting.
The KMT has been insisting that the review of Hsu Tzong-li’s (許宗力) nomination for Judicial Yuan president be suspended because Hsu is a former grand justice — a post he left in 2011 — which the party says disqualifies him from holding the post.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The KMT caucus said whether Hsu can be appointed should be resolved by a constitutional interpretation before the nomination process could proceed.
A cross-caucus negotiation in the morning took about an hour, but failed to reach a consensus.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the KMT caucus had feigned a willingness to negotiate, but had instead been attempting to delay the process.
“That is it. This frivolous game ends here,” Ker said.
The DPP caucus requested that the legislative agenda be fixed to foil any possibility of the KMT caucus obstructing proceedings by putting forward proposals to change the agenda, before proposing and passing the addition of the review process.
KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said that the nomination of Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission Chief Commissioner Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定), who had originally been nominated as Judicial Yuan president before the nomination was withdrawn following protests over his role in the KMT authoritarian regime, is “much less controversial” than that of Hsu’s.
“We are not against the grand justice nominees or the [Judicial Yuan] vice president nominee, but Hsu’s nomination is controversial not just for the KMT, but for many with legal backgrounds, who have called it inappropriate,” Lin said.
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the DPP was being “overbearing” in its attempt to push through the nomination process.
Lai said Ker should remember how the KMT caucus had, when it commanded a majority, helped the DPP caucus file a request for a constitutional interpretation over the National Communications Commission’s system of proportional political representation.
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said that while the KMT cites “people’s opinions,” many academics have argued against Hsu’s appointment being unconstitutional.
“That is why we need to begin the review, so that whether the nominees qualify can be examined publicly. The KMT should stop supposing that its argument is correct. The obstruction the KMT is undertaking is tantrum-throwing because it does not know how to convince the public to support it,” Wu said.
The legislature passed the DPP’s proposal to start the review process on Thursday next week and vote on the nominees on Oct. 25.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS