Despite a plea for bi-partisan support by President Chen Shui-bian (
Cheng Yung-chin (
"The reforms run counter to democratic trends. If county commissioners are allowed to monopolize power, it will facilitate a collusion of common interests," Cheng said.
In such circumstances, the black gold problem would progress from the township and county municipality levels to the county level, Cheng added.
He said in order to fight corruption, the DPP government should step up its crackdown on criminal activities, rather than abolish the elections.
The proposed amendment, one of the DPP government's anti-black gold projects, was submitted to the Legislative Yuan in October of last year.
Under the bill, the mayors of townships and county municipalities would be appointed by county and provincial municipal governments after the terms of incumbent mayors expire on Feb. 28, 2002.
Township and county municipal councils would be abolished altogether.
The bill has made no progress in the legislature.
In a routine nine-member panel meeting headed by President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen reminded the opposition that the reform was an inter-party agreement reached during the National Development Conference of 1996, in which the KMT and DPP were key players.
James Chen (
"The DPP is trying to threaten the mayors of townships and county municipalities into campaigning for the DPP. If they support other parties, they may not be able to keep their positions after the offices become appointed ones," Chen said.
For decades, the mayors of 309 rural and urban townships and county municipalities in Taiwan have been elected by popular vote.
Currently, over 80 percent of the township and county municipal mayors are from the KMT, most of them heads of local factions and opinion leaders who help the party gain support during election campaigns.
Local elections, however, have been criticized as a cause of vote-buying and black gold at the grassroots level.
The DPP now rules 12 of the total of 21 counties and provincial municipalities.
If the mayoralties of townships and county municipalities are to become appointed positions, political affiliation is likely to become the main factor in determining who secures the positions.
Despite the KMT's disapproval of the reform, Chou Po-lun (周伯倫), convener of the DPP caucus in the legislature, said his party will negotiate with the opposition parties to try to have the amendment passed before the current legislative session ends in July.
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