Although the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has regulations to root out people associated with gangs from the party, in practice there are clearly shortfalls, DPP Secretary-General Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) said on Sunday after a party member was implicated in a narcotics and fraud investigation.
Chao Chieh-yu (趙介佑) was expelled from the party on Saturday after it was alleged that he was involved in drug trafficking, racketeering, assault and kidnapping related to organized crime.
The accusations involve actions Chao allegedly took after joining the DPP in 2014.
Chao’s father, Chao Ying-kuang (趙映光), and aunt, Chao Hsin-yu (趙心瑜), have over the weekend resigned as review committee convener and executive officer of the DPP’s Taipei chapter respectively.
After calling an emergency meeting on Saturday to expel Chao Chieh-yu, Taipei chapter head Enoch Wu (吳怡農) said that the chapter would review and reform its membership process.
The DPP would investigate how Chao Chieh-yu evaded detection, despite the party’s policies to root out criminal involvement in its membership and leadership, Lin said on Sunday in response to media queries.
The issue lies in implementation, he said, adding that the party would invite local chapter heads to discuss how to close loopholes and better implement the policy.
However, taking the case as a reflection of the entire party would be taking things too far, he said.
The DPP must work hard to eliminate all criminal involvement in politics and elections, or it would affect the party’s image and governance, Lin added.
Reached for comment, DPP Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said that as a political party grows, it becomes difficult to prevent different forces from trying to gain positions of influence.
Especially after being in power for a long time, the DPP inevitably carries such baggage and has gradually come to terms with it, he added.
However, it must continue moving forward with the nation, he said, adding that it is time to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the party’s internal structure.
This would include adding more mechanisms to deal with corruption and factionalism, as well as infiltration by “unsavory forces,” he said.
The changes must be made quickly and unsuitable people expelled to meet the public’s expectations and maintain their trust in the party, Lai added.
A debt dispute between a restaurant owner and a criminal ring might be behind a bizarre cockroach attack at the Taipei eatery on Monday night while it was hosting a police gathering, Taipei Police Commissioner Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌) said yesterday. Preliminary findings of a police investigation into the case at the G House Taipei suggest that the unusual incident might have been directed at the restaurant’s owner, who allegedly owes money to the Bamboo Union, Chen said. The suspects were Bamboo Union members and there was no evidence indicating that the cockroaches were targeted at the police officers at the restaurant, he
Taiwan’s armed forces should closely monitor China’s development of a new tanker aircraft, as it would significantly boost the Chinese air force’s capability to carry out long-range raids, a military expert said on Wednesday. Ou Si-fu (歐錫富), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said in an online article that China is developing a tanker variant of its Y-20 military transport aircraft, known as the Y-20U. The Y-20 has a maximum take-off weight of 220 tonnes and the tanker variant is expected to carry up to 60 tonnes of fuel, more than three times the maximum
QUARANTINE BLUNDER: The government should be responsible for a cluster infection at a hotel, as the cases have caused panic, DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen said The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should make it mandatory for pilots and flight attendants, as well as their family members, to be vaccinated in view of a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, lawmakers said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday. The cluster infection at the hotel had led to 28 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, including hotel workers, as well as China Airlines flight and cabin crew, and their family members. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday tightened quarantine requirements for pilots and flight attendants, who must quarantine
TRAVELING WHILE CONTAGIOUS: The highest risk of infection is indoors, especially in settings where people take off their masks to eat and drink, an expert warned The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday posted a list of places visited by people who were recently diagnosed with COVID-19 while they were likely contagious, urging people who visited the sites at the same time to practice self-health management. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that confirmed case No. 1,129 — a woman in her 60s who works at Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, a designated quarantine facility, and tested positive on Friday — visited Chiayi between Friday last week and Monday. On the first day of her trip, she visited the Big Chiayi
RSS