Former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) and other former officials yesterday expressed their support for New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), urging people in his constituency to vote against the lawmaker’s recall tomorrow.
Although his views on many issues might not reflect traditional beliefs, Huang is a legislator with ideals and one who protects the interests of the public, Lee said at a news conference held by the NPP.
Some people blame Huang for supporting same-sex marriage, but the overwhelming majority of people would remain attracted to the opposite sex and this would not be affected by the minority who are not, Lee said.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
There are exceptions to the majority’s natural behavior and people should be tolerant of minorities, Lee added.
The Legislative Yuan is a place where controversies in society are fought out, former national policy adviser Rex How (郝明義) said.
Legislators hold a very low position in people’s hearts and many accuse them of only doing their parties’ bidding after they are elected, forgetting the promises they made during their campaigns, How said.
Huang actively pushed for the threshold for recall petitions to be lowered to improve the Legislative Yuan, How said, referring to an amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) that was passed last month.
However, after the threshold was lowered, Huang himself became a target for recall, How said.
Former grand justice Hsu Yu-hsiu (許玉秀) said she regretted that people had petitioned to demand a recall election for Huang, when he actively fought for the electorate’s right to do so.
Huang is a hardworking legislator, Hsu said.
How and Hsu urged people to stand up and exercise their right cast a vote against Huang’s recall.
When asked during a radio interview yesterday whether he was confident that he would win the recall election, Huang said that he would not utter the words “I will win.”
Huang said he was 99 percent confident that the recall motion would not pass.
Media have reported that some groups have used ”recall Huang Kuo-chang, punish [President] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)” as a slogan in the campaign to recall Huang.
Huang said he did not believe that he was being “punished” for Tsai’s policies.
The Tsai administration is much better than former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government and it is inappropriate to use such heavy words, Huang said.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
RSS