Frustrated by the stalemate in the legislature, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"The KMT caucus has to take full responsibility because it has shut the door of negotiation and keeps boycotting bills proposed by the Executive Yuan and the pan-green alliance at the legislature's procedure committee," said DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (
The pan-blue dominated committee yesterday voted 18 to 12 in favor of shelving 17 bills proposed by the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucuses. The bills include the arms procurement plan, confirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (
While Lien is willing to reconcile with the Chinese Communist Party, he has ordered his party to adopt a "scorched earth" policy to plunge the legislature into a standoff, Lai said.
"We hope the first thing Lien does when he comes home is to help solve the legislative problem," Lai said. "I think it would be more meaningful to help solve domestic problems than to bring back pandas from China."
Despite the opposition voiced by some DPP lawmakers to Lien's return, another DPP caucus whip, Jao Yung-ching (
Lai said that he hopes the legislature passes as many bills and budget plans as possible before the current session ends on May 31 instead of extending the session or even calling a provisional session.
Lai made the remarks in response to a proposal made by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who has indicated that he is under much pressure from the US government to handle the arms procurement plan. Wang has proposed to hold an interim session in July or August to tackle the matter if the legislature fails to pass the arms budget in the current session.
The People First Party (PFP) caucus also voiced opposition to Wang's proposal, saying that it prefers to settle the matter via cross-party negotiations, hopefully by the end of the month.
PFP caucus whip Lee Yong-ping (
The PFP's Chin Hui-chu (
PFP Legislator Wu Ching-chih (
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
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