While the governing and opposition parties might differ over policy, they share a common goal in wanting to make the nation a better place, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday as he visited the legislative caucuses.
In his meeting with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus, the premier said he had not returned to the Legislative Yuan since he left the Ministry of Finance in 2006, but he had examined various problems relating to public policies over the past 10 years with the DPP and then-presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during the election campaign.
Lin said he was glad to see the DPP win a legislative majority, which would facilitate implementation of public policies, and promised to continue communicating with lawmakers.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus also gave Lin a warm welcome, while presenting their requests — that the Cabinet reject imports of US pork containing ractopamine; defend fishermen’s rights to fish around the Okinotori atoll; and continue the practice of implementing toll-free hours on freeways during the four-day Dragon Boat Festival next week.
Lin said that he would include the KMT caucus’ suggestions for review in the Cabinet meeting and ask related agencies to review their potential impacts before making a decision.
Separately, KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) accused Lin of “dereliction of duty” over his decision to drop charges against Sunflower movement protesters who stormed into the Executive Yuan compound in 2014. He said he would file charges against the premier with the Special Investigation Division.
Chen said that the dropping of criminal charges against the protestors has “hurt the morale of front-line law enforcement agents” and could “cause confusion as to how law enforcement should be carried out.”
Chen said Lin had violated the Criminal Code as a public official for “directly or indirectly [seeking] to gain illegal benefits from a function under his control or supervision for himself or others and gains benefits,” and the Anti-corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Chen said that the premier calls the protesters’ storming of the Executive Yuan building a “political incident,” but similar incidents have been dealt with strictly by the law.
He cited as examples former KMT legislator Chiu Yi’s (邱毅) attempt to ram a truck into the Kaohsiung District Court building and former KMT legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) leading a rampage outside the Central Election Commission in protest against the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.
Chiu’s and Lee’s cases were decided by the judiciary and both received their punishments, Chen said.
Lin’s decision to spare protesters would inspire people disgruntled with politics to follow suit, Chen said.
‘FAILED TACTICS’: A lawmaker said Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong and Taiwan’s success at boosting its ties internationally have boosted identification as Taiwanese Self-identification as “Taiwanese and Chinese,” or solely as “Chinese,” has dropped to record lows, while 63.3 percent of the public regard themselves as Taiwanese, a survey released on Tuesday by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed. Respondents identifying as Taiwanese and Chinese dropped to 31.4 percent, while those identifying solely as Chinese fell to 2.7 percent, the survey showed. The results reflect changes in attitudes since 1994 among Taiwanese toward independence and unification with China, as well as self-identification trends since 1992, commenters said. Support for independence was 25.8 percent, while about 5 percent of respondents said that they want the nation
ONLY EXCEPTIONS: The mayors of the two largest cities voiced concerns over hidden cases, while all other local governments are to follow eased CECC guidelines All local governments, with the exception of Taipei and New Taipei City, are to allow dine-in services at restaurants after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday announced that it would on Tuesday lower a nationwide COVID-19 alert to level 2. The center on July 8 allowed the resumption of dining at restaurants nationwide — despite keeping the alert level at 3. At the time, this prompted all cities and counties, except Penghu Country, to keep local dine-in bans in place. Following Friday’s CECC announcement that COVID-19 prevention measures would be further relaxed, the Taipei and New Taipei City governments
‘NOT IMPOSSIBLE’: Acceptance to the UN would end the nation’s troubles, but it would be impossible to achieve without US backing, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun said The US might recognize Taiwan if war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said yesterday while discussing politics with former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Speaking on Chen’s program on Smile Radio, You reminisced about his agrarian childhood, studies, the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party in 1986 and his eight years as Yilan County commissioner. Chen’s appointment of You as premier in February 2002 marked several firsts, as he was Taiwan’s youngest premier, as well as the first from a farming background and first democratically elected county leader to hold the office. Asked to share his views on
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday rejected the claim Beijing has been making about Taiwan’s status, while thanking US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for raising concerns about Taiwan during her meeting with Chinese officials. Sherman met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on a visit to Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, with Wang urging Washington not to infringe on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Taiwan is part of China, a fundamental fact that would never change, and China has the right to take any action needed to restrain Taiwanese independence, Wang said, urging Washington to abide
RSS