An ad hoc committee next year hopes to present viable options to legislators to relocate the Legislative Yuan, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said on Sunday last week.
You said in an interview that he has instructed the committee to prepare the options — with an eye to present them by 2023 — as he has supported such ideas since he became speaker on Feb. 1, 2020.
Since 1960, the Legislative Yuan has been housed in a former dormitory of what was Taipei Second Girls’ Senior High School during the Japanese colonial period.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The building is leased to the legislature by the Taipei City Government and many of its adjunct buildings are of historical significance, posing a problem for potential expansion.
The committee has had two meetings and is to provide legislators with options once it has assessed opinions on the issue from different sectors and industries, You said.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉) said that the legislature should move as soon as possible.
A different image, location and environment would presage a change in mindset for legislators and the public’s expectations of them, Lin said.
Only a big shift at the legislature would induce a change in its systems and culture, he said.
On other issues, You said that the government would have achieved partial success if it pushes through a referendum for a constitutional amendment to lower the legal age for voting to 18.
Even if such a referendum did not pass, the government would have shown that there is an issue with the high threshold for constitutional amendments, he said.
Lowering the voting age is among several constitutional amendments that have been proposed at the legislature.
An ad hoc constitutional amendment committee was formed on Oct. 6, 2020.
Any proposed constitutional amendments would have to receive the backing of at least one-quarter of the 113 lawmakers to be forwarded to the procedural committee, which would assign them to the 39-member constitutional amendment committee for review.
For a proposal to be approved, it must be backed by at least half of the members of the constitutional amendment committee at a meeting attended by at least one-third of its members.
Then, it would have to be approved by at least three-quarters of the legislature, with at least three-quarters in attendance.
Should that threshold be met, the proposal would be put to a public referendum.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS