The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called on president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to explain her stance on the abolition of the death penalty, saying it does not rule out subjecting the controversial issue to a referendum.
The KMT caucus made the remarks during a news conference at the legislature, amid public fury over the brutal murder of a four-year-old girl, who was decapitated in front of her mother in an apparent random attack in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) on Monday.
The girl’s death has renewed debate on the abrogation of capital punishment, which still exists in Taiwan. The last time a convict was put to death in the nation was in June last year, when six death-row inmates were executed.
Photo: CNA
“We strongly oppose scrapping the death penalty. A murderer must pay the price for his crime with his own life,” KMT deputy caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) told the news conference.
Lin said the tragedy is heart-wrenching and that the caucus held the news conference to ask opponents of the death penalty: “Do you think society can accept your proposal?”
KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) called on the Ministry of Justice to execute the 42 death-row inmates in the nation’s prisons as soon as possible to deter similar atrocities.
“The ministry has sought to put off the executions by citing two UN human rights conventions,” Lai said, referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ratified by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in May 2009.
Given increasing public calls for the abolition of the death penalty and many DPP members’ opposition to capital punishment, the ministry might become even less willing to carry out a death sentence once the new DPP administration is sworn in on May 20, Lai said.
Most murderers targeting young children in the past few years have not been put on death row because of the two UN conventions and the convicts’ claims of mental disorders, KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said.
“Should our future head of state insist on pushing for the abrogation of capital punishment, we do not rule out initiating a referendum to let the public decide,” Chiang said, urging judges to mete out the most severe sentence for child killers.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said a draft amendment she has proposed to the Criminal Code to subject people who kill children under the age of 12 to a mandatory death sentence or life sentence is set to be deliberated during a legislative committee meeting tomorrow.
Separately yesterday, Premier Simon Chang (張善政) said that society is still far from reaching a consensus on the abrogation of capital punishment.
“The death penalty still exists in the nation, though some people really want to see it gone. It requires a high level of public consensus to amend current laws,” Chang said after visiting people injured in the Formosa Fun Coast water park disaster in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里) in June last year.
Chang said as a government official, he is not in a position to comment on the issue.
“We should leave this matter to the public to decide,” he said.
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for