The rights of homemakers and immigrants are among the top priorities for two small political parties, one of which on Friday named its candidates for November’s local elections.
The Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party — which takes its name from the Japanese word obasan, a term of endearment for an aunt or older woman, in common use in Taiwan — named 15 candidates, while a party for “new residents and immigrants” was launched in Chiayi City yesterday, although it has yet to decide whether it would put up candidates in the Nov. 26 elections.
Mothers and homemakers make up the core membership of the Obasang Party, which registered as a political entity three years ago.
Photo: CNA
At a rally outside the legislature in Taipei, party convener Chiang Min-jung (江敏榕) announced the names of its candidates for city councilor seats in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and for Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北).
Given the party’s membership is 90 percent female, it is unsurprising that 14 of its candidates are women, including Chang Shu-hui (張淑惠) and Ho Yu-jung (何語蓉), who are seeking seats in New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts respectively.
Its only male candidate is Lien Shao-chieh (連紹傑), who is running for city councilor in the combined constituency of Taipei’s Datong (大同) and Zhongshan (中山) districts, Chiang said.
“This is our first slate of candidates,” she said. “We are working across Taiwan at the local community level, holding meetings, mobilizing support and raising funds. We will announce more candidates in the next few weeks, as more people are seeking councilor positions.”
Obasang’s core policies focus on children’s rights, creating a parent-child friendly society, environmental justice, and gender and political equality, she said.
At the rally, party members performed a skit, with a mother portraying the difficulties of taking public transportation with a baby in a stroller.
The performance was intended to show how city governments poorly design streets and public spaces, Chiang said.
The party was formed by parents of young children, single mothers and homemakers after attending local citizen empowerment and education workshops, it said in a statement.
They formed the “Obasang Alliance” to address their common concerns over public policies, a paternalistic education system, lack of family friendly public spaces, children’s rights and pollution, it said.
It said that the “political system was designed with barriers to citizen participation, the worst of which are money and personal networks.”
“Our stance is that extreme financial and social requirements for political participation are anti-democratic,” it said.
“Politics should not be a high wall that blocks regular citizens, who should have fair participation in politics... We feel that social obstacles for women who want to participate in politics are much higher than for men,” it added.
In Chiayi, a group of immigrants and “new residents,” announced the launch of the Happy People Party, saying they have not yet decided whether they would field candidates in this year’s elections.
The party’s Chinese name (台灣新住民黨) means “new residents of Taiwan,” referring to people who immigrated within the past two decades.
Happy People Chairwoman Mach Ngoc Tran (麥玉珍) is a Vietnamese immigrant who also heads the Taiwan Immigrant Association, and party Executive Director Zhang Hanling (張寒玲) is from China.
Both obtained citizenship through their Taiwanese husbands.
The party said it is focused on promoting social harmony, economic prosperity, multicultural identity and “clean politics.”
New residents, many of whom are from China or Southeast Asia, should be able to settle in Taiwan and live with dignity, freedom, equality, and justice for their family and society, the party leaders said.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS