Cabinet members’ Facebook pages came under fire on Monday from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), who likened them to “mummies,” because they were either auto-generated or have not been updated in a long time.
The “Internet development classes” that Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) urged the ministers to take have resulted in nothing, Kuan said.
The classes were aimed at improving government officials’ skills and understanding of the Internet to help them better communicate with the younger generation online, which Mao has been pushing since he took over as premier following the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rout in last year’s nine-in-one elections.
Kuan said that while the DPP has promoted “iDrafting” — a call to netizens to present proposals that the party can discuss at its Central Standing Committee meetings — and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has instituted “i-Voting” — a process by which netizens can vote for certain Taipei City officials — the Cabinet has yet to catch up with the Internet trend.
“DPP Chairperson [Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)] has said that the Internet can be an ‘anti-aging’ tool for the party. The government, political parties and politicians have to enter this field, or risk aging and being deactivated in the market of public opinion,” Kuan said.
She said that Cabinet ministers have not only aged, but have become “mummified.”
“[Vice Premier] Simon Chang (張善政) and [National Development Council Minister] Woody Duh (杜紫軍) are still ministers without portfolios [on Facebook]; [Minister of Education] Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) and [Minister of Health and Welfare] Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) are still university president and professor; Mao and [Minister of Economic Affairs] John Deng (鄧振中) have auto-generated pages; [Minister of the Interior] Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) and [Minister of Transportation and Communications] Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇) do not even have auto-generated accounts,” Kuan said.
“Our Cabinet could be said to be ‘i-Dying,’” she said.
Chang’s position on his page was corrected to “vice premier” yesterday after Kuan’s criticism.
His office said that the vice premier had updated his information in person and would continue doing so in the future.
Executive Yuan officials yesterday said that the premier, the vice premier and other ministers were simply too busy to run their own pages.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
RSS