A group of pan-green academics who created a stir earlier this month by demanding President Chen Shui-bian's (
The academics said that they regretted that Chen had not resigned in the wake of their first public statement on July 15, and that Chen had since then failed to offer any solution to the fundamental problem with his continued leadership, which was the collapse of public trust.
In their statement, the pan-green academics also criticized the leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for lacking the stamina and imagination to work out a new vision for the nation's future.
"Only by developing an energetic and independent civil society can we improve the country's democracy," the group's statement said. "Only picky people can promote a better-quality political party."
The press conference was held at the Machangting (馬場町), a former execution ground for political prisoners adjacent to Youth Park, to highlight the fact that the DPP has not sufficiently dealt with the issue of transitional justice, according to the chief convener of the group Fan Yun (范雲), associate professor at National Taiwan University.
Political scientist Wu Rwei-ren (
Attorney Lo Bing-cheng (羅秉成), who served as Chen's defense attorney in the lawsuit over the vote recount after the 2004 presidential election, said yesterday that Chen had destroyed the public's trust in the rule of law because of his convoluted and ambiguous excuses for the SOGO voucher scandal and his son-in-law's alleged involvement in corruption.
"Now that President Chen has stubbornly defied the recall drive, why doesn't he just leave office and fight to prove his and his family's innocence and protect his family's reputation? `So, Go,' please!" Lo said.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
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