The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should include forming a “constitutional reform committee” as a topic on the agenda of the Legislative Yuan’s extraordinary session, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said yesterday.
Such a move would formally launch discussions about abolishing the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan, Lin said.
Abolishing the two branches of government is the consensus among the ruling and opposition parties, and the DPP should heed public opinion by listing the issue as a topic for the extraordinary session, which is to begin on Monday next week, he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The DPP caucus has only proposed reviewing bills on a “citizen judge” lay judge system and on reforming the irrigation associations, as well as Control Yuan and National Communications Commission member nominees.Just as former Yunlin County commissioner Lee Chin-yung’s (李進勇) resignation from the DPP when appointed by the Executive Yuan to head the Central Election Commission was unconvincing, former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu’s (陳菊) pledge to leave the DPP to serve as Control Yuan president does not convince people, Lin wrote in a statement.
He accused Chen of “putting on a show,” as her party membership can be reinstated after she steps down as Control Yuan president.
Chen, who was Kaohsiung mayor from 2006 to 2018, achieved “embarrassingly little” for the municipality and condoned a culture of corruption among Kaohsiung City Government officials, Lin wrote.
Of the 27 people nominated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to serve as Control Yuan members, 24 have close ties with the DPP, which runs counter to the idea of exercising their authority in a nonpartisan manner, he wrote.
Following yesterday’s cross-caucus talks, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) voiced support on Facebook for abolishing the two agencies, and if the DPP is serious about moving forward, Tsai should rescind her nominations, Lin wrote.
He questioned whether the DPP intends to hire more “hit men” like Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), who sparked an uproar in the judiciary in 2018 when he said he would target judges who only try people from the pan-green camp and do nothing about people from the pan-blue camp.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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