The New Power Party (NPP) caucus yesterday staged a protest in the legislature, blasting the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for vetoing its motions to review a bill to promote transitional justice and a draft amendment to the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
Led by NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), the five NPP lawmakers held up placards and chanted slogans while their motions calling for a review of the DPP’s transitional justice bill and the amendment to the Referendum Act were being voted down by DPP lawmakers.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) promised during her election campaign to pass an amendment that would lower the thresholds for initiating and passing referendums before the end of this year, while the transitional justice bill was a central DPP policy in the early days of Tsai’s presidency.
The DPP caucus has delayed reviewing the transitional justice bill due to disagreements with other caucuses over the scope of state-owned land that the Japanese colonial government took from Aboriginal communities that should be returned to them.
DPP lawmakers said that the NPP is not in a position to point fingers because it did not submit its own transitional justice bill.
DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that there are only two versions of the transitional justice bill: hers and the DPP caucus’.
The transitional justice bill will “definitely” be passed before the current legislative session ends, she said, asking people to have faith in the DPP.
“Why do lawmakers who did not propose a bill repeatedly accuse the DPP of treating transitional justice with indifference?” Wu asked.
An NPP assistant, Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟), wrote on Facebook that the NPP did propose a transitional justice bill, titled the “bill on redressing historical justice and rights,” during the first legislative session last year, before Wu tabled hers.
The NPP’s bill has been shelved after DPP lawmakers last year voted it down during committee reviews due to differences in opinion between the two parties on reinstating Aboriginal land, Lin said.
The NPP nonetheless supports the DPP’s vision for promoting transitional justice, which is why it has been calling for the DPP caucus to swiftly put its bill to a committee review, where different opinions can be proposed and considered, she said.
Huang and NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) could not be reached for comment as of press time last night.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS