Independence supporters yesterday said that they were willing to keep their fight going for years as the Taipei High Administrative Court began hearing a challenge against a Central Election Commission decision.
Taiwan New Constitution Foundation founder Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) attended the opening session.
The commission last year rejected the foundation’s application to conduct a referendum on drafting a new constitution.
Photo: CNA
“I have advocated Taiwanese independence for more than half a century,” Koo said before the hearing.
“Taiwan has been under Japanese colonial rule and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) autocratic regime. It is time for us to push for the drafting of a new constitution for Taiwan,” he said.
“It might take three years or maybe five, but we will continue to push for this,” he said.
A new constitution would better “reflect the new reality for the nation, and for Taiwanese,” he said.
“Koo Kwang-ming is 96 years old now and does not have too many years to live, but we must push on to make a new constitution a reality,” he said, referring to himself in the third person.
“I have come to the court today with the goal to enable people to vote in a referendum for a new constitution,” he added.
In an explanation of its decision, the commission said that it rejected the foundation’s application because it did not conform to provisions of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) that require a referendum question to be framed in a clear, neutral manner.
The decision on Oct. 16 last year to reject the application prompted Koo to appeal to the administrative court.
“For 100 years, Taiwan has been under the rule of colonial regimes. Now we have democracy and freedom for the people,” Koo said. “We can peacefully vote in a referendum to change the constitution, which would suit Taiwan.”
“It is an issue we must undertake for the sake of future generations,” he said.
“Therefore, we will go all out to win this case,” he added.
Attorney Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), who accompanied Koo, said that Taiwanese have fundamental rights and should be allowed to express their views on holding a referendum to draft a new constitution.
“The commission’s decision to deny the application was unconstitutional, in our view,” Huang said.
“In today’s oral argument, we will stress the importance of the rights of Taiwanese to be involved in the constitutional process,” he added.
“The rights of our nation’s citizens to ‘become masters of their own house’ must be upheld,” he said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS