The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would hold a disciplinary meeting this week, KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said yesterday. The move comes following a vote in the legislature on Friday in which the opposition parties almost mustered enough votes to pass a motion banning the import of US beef, despite the KMT holding a majority of legislative seats.
The resolution, a joint effort by the Democratic Progressive Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the People First Party, called for the government to remove US beef from the shelves of local stores, place imported US beef under customs seal and temporarily ban US beef because of the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, commonly called mad cow disease), in accordance with Article 5-7 of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures adopted by WTO members.
During the first round of voting on Friday, KMT legislators Yang Ying-hsiung (楊應雄) and Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) abstained, though they voted against the resolution in the second round after coming under pressure from KMT caucus whips to toe the party line. Another three KMT lawmakers — Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), Lin Chang-min (林滄敏) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑雷) — also abstained from voting in the second round.
Lin Chang-min said that although he disapproved of the pan-green camp’s “surprise attacks” in introducing the resolution, there were legitimate reasons to ban imports of US beef given that the US had recorded a new case of mad cow disease.
Lin Chang-min said that he abstained from voting out of a belief that public health is an issue of paramount importance and that he felt it was his responsibility first and foremost to defend the interests of Taiwanese.
Lo said that prior to the party’s priority mobilization, the KMT caucus had not been informed what the vote would be about, adding that it was only after the session started that she realized the vote was on a resolution to ban the import of US beef.
Lo said she abstained because she did not know how to articulate her concern over the subject in such a short span of time.
As to a KMT caucus regulation that imposes fines on lawmakers who fail to cooperate with a caucus priority mobilization order, Lo said she was happy to pay the fine if her actions contributed to heightening public awareness over the issue.
According to Lin Hung-chih, failure to comply with a priority mobilization order can result in a fine of NT$10,000 (US$340), but he also said that no fine had been imposed since the previous legislative term.
Meanwhile, Ting said that he abstained because he had family matters to take care of in the morning and when he arrived at the Legislative Yuan, he met with an official from CPC Corp. By the time he returned to the legislative session, the second round of voting had already started and he had no idea what was being voted on so he abstained, Ting said.
KMT legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環), who was absent from Friday’s session, said she had absented herself because she opposed leanness-enhancing additive-laced US beef, even more so after the case of mad cow disease, and would have had to vote in favor had she attended.
“I had already told the caucus group that I favored zero tolerance for leanness-enhancing additives laced beef,” Yang said, adding that “we should not import poisoned things for people to eat, because who are they going to blame if they get sick years later after we allow imports?”
Two other KMT legislators who abstained from voting were Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) and Ma Wen-jun (馬文君). They said they arrived late to the session and were about to vote when the voting concluded.
Lin Hung-chih said KMT lawmakers declining to cooperate with the party whips was a warning sign.
“We will launch an internal review next week to uphold party discipline and ensure party unity,” he said, adding that the caucus needed better discipline and unity otherwise it would be unable to defend the people’s rights and push through the policies of the government.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS