The New Power Party (NPP) on Tuesday proposed a resolution to request that the Ministry of Education release within one week a list of university professors who have concurrently held illegal posts as directors at companies and for-profit organizations.
NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) made the proposal during cross-caucus negotiations at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on the central government’s general budget for this year.
He said that he had asked the ministry to reveal the names of the educators, where they worked illegally and what disciplinary measures were carried out, but the ministry only provided statistics, saying that there were privacy concerns.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
As long as privacy is not a real issue, the ministry should provide any information legislators need, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said, adding that “privacy rights should not become an excuse for protecting educators who have broken the law.”
Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) suggested passing a resolution requesting that the ministry release the names of all professors found to have illegally worked as independent directors and Su agreed.
The resolution to provide the professors’ names, their school and department, company or organization and their university’s responses would require the minister of education to submit the information within one week and present a briefing on the matter to the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee.
While the committee had previously decided to cut the National Palace Museum’s NT$860 million (US$27.9 million) renovation budget by NT$200 million and freeze an additional NT$200 million until museum officials brief lawmakers on the details of renovation projects, legislators on Tuesday agreed to not cut the budget and raise the frozen amount to NT$300 million after museum Director Chen Chi-nan (陳其南) requested a larger budget during negotiations.
Regarding the Financial Supervisory Commission’s budget, NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) proposed setting it aside for future discussion after a commission representative displayed a poor attitude, but Su only agreed to set aside parts of the budget that do not regularly occur.
Su also decided to leave the budget for the Ministry of Finance’s performance bonuses for tax officials for the plenary session after lawmakers across party lines expressed doubts over its legal basis.
Negotiations continued past midnight, and by early morning yesterday, legislators had reached a consensus on the central government’s education, economic and financial budgets.
They are today to continue negotiations on the budgets for transportation, communications, social welfare and other areas.
Decisions made during cross-caucus negotiations still require approval in a plenary session before taking effect.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard