Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) should apologize to the nation for his “dereliction” in supervising public safety, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
Regulations stipulate that the Executive Yuan should hold an interagency public safety meeting every two months, but the last one was held a year ago, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.
Public safety should be the premier’s “top priority,” Wang said, urging Su to immediately call an interagency meeting to discuss which municipalities and counties need public safety improvements.
Photo: CNA
Regarding the personal safety of women, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has been “seriously negligent,” Wang added.
The Ministry of the Interior has refused to pass a proposed anti-stalking and harassment bill that has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan for years, Wang said, calling on the ministry to propose a version of the bill as soon as possible.
The KMT’s comments follow the abduction and murder of a 24-year-old Malaysian woman who was a student at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan. A 28-year-old suspect surnamed Liang (梁) has reportedly confessed to strangling the victim before dumping her body in Kaohsiung.
KMT Cultural and Communications Committee deputy director-general Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) said the incident shows the Democratic Progressive Party administration’s lack of concern for public safety.
Huang asked how the government could expect foreign students studying in Taiwan to feel safe given the “international scandal.”
The Food Safety Board, which should hold a meeting every three months, has not held a meeting since June 3 last year, while the last interagency public safety meeting was held on Oct. 28 last year, the KMT said, citing information from the Executive Yuan’s Web site.
In September, noting that a Food Safety Board meeting had not been held in more than a year, the party had urged the Executive Yuan to convene one to discuss the potential effects of its decision to allow imports of US pork containing ractopamine from Jan. 1.
“How many more meetings should the Executive Yuan have held that were not held?” Huang asked.
Several other meetings that the Executive Yuan is required to hold — such as the National Council for Sustainable Development, the Social Welfare Promotional Committee and the Drug Prevention and Control Board — are months overdue, he said.
“Su Tseng-chang would rather scold than hold a meeting,” he said.
Yesterday, Su said that it was his decision not to hold the interagency public safety meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Executive Yuan has asked the public not to hold ‘unnecessary meetings,’” Su said. “It is leading by example.”
Instead, discussions on specific public safety issues have been held during Executive Yuan meetings, he added.
However, Huang accused Su of deceiving the public and using the pandemic as an excuse, saying that other interagency meetings have been held since the outbreak began.
If the Executive Yuan is concerned about gatherings during the pandemic, it could hold them via videoconferencing, Huang added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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