The issue of whether and how to shake up grassroots credit institutions continued to grip the legislature yesterday as DPP lawmakers slammed a few "bogus farmers" for seeking to stall reforms to protect their vested interests.
The TSU legislative caucus, which has asked farmers and fishermen to call off a mass protest this weekend, said the organizers are now divided, with hawkish members having the upper hand.
The PFP, meanwhile, said it has canceled a top mobilization order to avoid charges the party is using the demonstration to discredit the government.
But the opposition party continued to question the government's resolve to look after the farmers, noting that next year's fiscal budget fails to list NT$150 billion in agriculture funds as promised.
Disappointed at the Cabinet's policy reversal, several DPP lawmakers held a joint news conference yesterday to insist on the need for reform.
DPP Legislator Hong Chi-chang (
"The effort to straighten out troubled credit units is not an attempt to destroy the associations altogether," he said. "It is corrupt officials at those associations that are the real enemies of farmers. Over the years, many of them have taken advantage of their posts and secured loans for their cronies without sufficient collateral."
Aggregate non-performing loans accumulated by these units amounted to NT$137 billion as of June this year, up from NT$72.3 billion in 1996, official data show.
Chiu Tai-san (
"Over the years, managers of these associations have siphoned off the savings of farmers and refused reform to protect their entrenched interests," he said. "Greedy and prone to corruption, they must not be taken as the entire farming community."
Leaders from the country's 304 farmers' and fishermen's associations have said they will go ahead with a massive protest in Taipei on Saturday even though the government agreed on Sunday to suspend its risk-control measures.
More than 100,000 farmers and fishermen are expected to attend the demonstration partly to highlight their slumping standard of living, a phenomenon that has been compounded by Taiwan's entry to the WTO.
DPP Legislator Kuo Chun-ming (郭俊銘) said two association managers in his home county of Taichung have been sentenced to five-year jail terms for fraud.
Other lawmakers conceded that the suspended three-tier risk-control mechanism is too complicated.
To address the problem, they suggested the government simplify the reform policy under which managers of these associations may not interfere with the management of their credit units.
They argued that all financial institutions, big or small, should be placed under the jurisdiction of a financial supervisory board.
The Cabinet has promised to make the Council of Agriculture the regulatory agency of grassroots credit units.
In other developments, TSU Legislator Lo Chih-ming (
"Though some are inclined to reciprocate the government's conciliatory gesture, others insist on going ahead with the protest," Lo told reporters.
He said the latter group's voice is louder, in part as a result of encouragement from the opposition KMT and PFP.
The legislator said the KMT paid for a half-page ad in a Chinese-language newspaper Tuesday that urges all discontented farmers, fishermen, students, intellectuals and other groups to join the rally planned for Saturday.
The PFP caucus, echoing the plea to de-politicize the coming event, said it has revoked a top mobilization order pressing its members and supporters to take part in the protest.
But PFP Legislator Thomas Lee (
Officials have pledged the funding to improve the welfare of the two groups.
PFP Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) said he doubted the Council of Agriculture is capable of overseeing grassroots credit units given the council's lack of financial experts.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS