No Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday attended a public hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Constitutional Amendment Committee.
The legislative caucuses in 2020 established the committee amid calls to amend the Constitution, appointing 39 members based on a party’s proportion of seats in the legislature.
DPP Legislator Chou Chun-mi (周春米) convened yesterday’s session, which included DPP members, New Power Party legislators Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) and Claire Wang (王婉瑜), and Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Jang Chyi-lu (張其祿).
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The KMT members of the committee on Wednesday said they would not participate, saying that the DPP had last week contravened legislative procedure in choosing Chou as convener in the opening session before KMT legislators had arrived.
“The KMT will not participate because the DPP is faking the process to deceive the public... The agenda and procedures were set by the DPP,” KMT Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) said on Wednesday, adding that the DPP “must bear total responsibility for the failure of the constitutional amendment process.”
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) yesterday said that the KMT was sabotaging the process by boycotting it, adding that the “KMT’s goal is to ruin the constitutional amendment process.”
At yesterday’s meeting, Academia Sinica law researcher Su Yen-tu (蘇彥圖) told the committee that there is general agreement in Taiwan for “granting civil rights to adults at the age of 18, and also to give them voting rights.”
“Therefore the issue should be a priority for the committee, and does not need to go through any hard bargaining process,” he said.
Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy head Alvin Chang (張育萌) said that Taiwan needs to catch up on rights for young people, as “Japan, South Korea and Malaysia have amended their constitutions to grant voting and civil rights to people at 18 years old.”
Taiwan Forever Association chairman Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said that it had been more than 15 years since a committee was convened to amend the Constitution, “while our nation’s framework and government have encountered many challenges and difficulties.”
“The threshold for amending the Constitution must be dealt with by this committee, as it is too high, requiring three-quarters of legislators to vote in approval,” he said. “This is among the highest threshold requirements, and should be lowered.”
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
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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
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