President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that the disturbances on Double Ten National Day reflected the preciousness of Taiwan's democracy but he emphasized that the maintenance of order is equally important.
"Despite the disturbances, street protests and illegal assembly on the streets of Taipei, I'm happy that things finally returned to normal," Chen said. "Freedom of speech is fully protected here in Taiwan, but traffic laws, social order and constitutional procedure, all of which concern the common interest of the people, must be thoroughly carried out."
Freedom of the minority must not hamper that of the majority and that is the essence of Taiwan's democracy, Chen told Malawi's National Assembly Speaker Louis Chimango.
Chen made similar remarks when meeting Belize Governor General Sir Colville Young at the Presidential Office.
"Taiwan is a fully fledged democracy where freedom of speech is fully protected and different ideas are tolerated," Chen said. "The clamor that happened on national day displays the pluralism and dynamism of Taiwan's democracy."
He told the president of Swaziland's Senate, Gelane Zwane, that he was determined to push for constitutional reform.
"Taiwan has gone through several rounds of constitutional reform over the years but we are not very satisfied," he said. "We are still not very happy with the last constitutional re-engineering program that passed in June last year."
Chen said he hoped to aggressively push for a new constitution that would be timely, relevant and viable, in a bid to enhance governance and upgrade the nation's competitiveness.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
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