Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) and Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) on Friday last week proposed a bill to abolish the National Father’s Mausoleum Management Committee under the Presidential Office.
The committee was established according to Article 717 of the Republic of China (ROC) Office of the President Organization Act (中華民國總統府組織法) and should be formed of 21 to 27 members tasked with guarding and managing the cemetery.
The legislators said they are proposing abolishing the committee, as it is no longer possible for the government to manage the Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) Mausoleum in Nanjing, China.
The mausoleum was established in 1929 following Sun’s passing, with the attending act for its management being passed in 1946.
Lai also proposed amending the act to remove any wording that the committee was created under the Presidential Office.
The reason for the additional amendment is that the committee, although included in the ROC Office of the President Organization Act in 1948, was never given funding, nor has it had any personnel ever assigned to it, Lai said.
Both proposals have passed their first readings and are being reviewed by legislative committees.
It is not the first attempt to abolish the committee, as DPP legislators have made similar proposals from 2016 to 2018, but these were met with opposition from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
KMT spokeswoman Chiang Yi-chen (江怡臻) said the latest proposal amounted to “biting the hand that feeds” and “pushing a political ideology.”
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