Former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) and other former officials yesterday expressed their support for New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), urging people in his constituency to vote against the lawmaker’s recall tomorrow.
Although his views on many issues might not reflect traditional beliefs, Huang is a legislator with ideals and one who protects the interests of the public, Lee said at a news conference held by the NPP.
Some people blame Huang for supporting same-sex marriage, but the overwhelming majority of people would remain attracted to the opposite sex and this would not be affected by the minority who are not, Lee said.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
There are exceptions to the majority’s natural behavior and people should be tolerant of minorities, Lee added.
The Legislative Yuan is a place where controversies in society are fought out, former national policy adviser Rex How (郝明義) said.
Legislators hold a very low position in people’s hearts and many accuse them of only doing their parties’ bidding after they are elected, forgetting the promises they made during their campaigns, How said.
Huang actively pushed for the threshold for recall petitions to be lowered to improve the Legislative Yuan, How said, referring to an amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) that was passed last month.
However, after the threshold was lowered, Huang himself became a target for recall, How said.
Former grand justice Hsu Yu-hsiu (許玉秀) said she regretted that people had petitioned to demand a recall election for Huang, when he actively fought for the electorate’s right to do so.
Huang is a hardworking legislator, Hsu said.
How and Hsu urged people to stand up and exercise their right cast a vote against Huang’s recall.
When asked during a radio interview yesterday whether he was confident that he would win the recall election, Huang said that he would not utter the words “I will win.”
Huang said he was 99 percent confident that the recall motion would not pass.
Media have reported that some groups have used ”recall Huang Kuo-chang, punish [President] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)” as a slogan in the campaign to recall Huang.
Huang said he did not believe that he was being “punished” for Tsai’s policies.
The Tsai administration is much better than former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government and it is inappropriate to use such heavy words, Huang said.
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on
RSS