Citizen Congress Watch yesterday called on all 335 legislative candidates to back reform proposals and pledge to refuse to abuse government funds to benefit assistants or their office.
All parties attended an event hosted by the legislative watchdog except the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The group said it would announce who signed the pledges by the middle of next month.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Citizen Congress Watch chairman Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) told a news conference that there has been a spike in legislators failing to recuse themselves from conflicts of interests.
Group executive director Leo Chang (張宏林) said that incidents involving conflicts of interest have greatly affected the public’s confidence in the legislature, adding that Citizen Congress Watch hopes candidates would sign the pledge and uphold it if elected.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), seeking to secure another term as a legislator-at-large, said the legislature always has room for improvement, even though Citizen Congress Watch considers DPP lawmakers to have excellent performance records, while the Legislative Yuan has earned international approval for transparency.
New Power Party (NPP) legislator-at-large candidate Wang Pao-hsuan (王寶萱) said that NPP legislators have all been considered “excellent” by the group and would continue to promote a more transparent legislature.
The party would continue to watch for issues that could pose conflicts of interest for its legislators, Wang added.
Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator-at-large candidate Shih Wei-chu (史惟筑) said her party was glad to see Citizen Congress Watch’s proposed list of pledges, but added that more emphasis should be given to addressing Chinese infiltration efforts.
The party proposed two additional pledges: that candidates with significant investments in China be considered ineligible to run and that candidates be screened for national security reasons, Shih said.
Her comments referred to the KMT and the DPP nominating Chinese immigrants for their legislator-at-large lists.
Former People First Party legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) said the party had worked on legislative reform efforts before, and if it wins enough seats to form a caucus, it would work closely with Citizen Congress Watch.
While the People First Party agreed with most of the political watchdog’s pledges, legislators are elected representatives of the public, Chen said, adding that the group’s call for regulating the “commitment” of legislators should be further discussed.
Citizen Congress Watch called for legislative candidates to promise to not abuse their office, sign a nondisclosure agreement to not reveal national security secrets discussed during hearings, and draft laws that would ensure their full-time commitment as legislators — preventing them from holding positions at for-profit businesses during their time in office — and to be transparent about their positions.
It also called on candidates to be disciplined, uphold legislative transparency, publicize reports on foreign inspections, observe due process in the confirmations of officials, be timely on national spending reviews, and draft legislation granting the legislature powers of investigation and to hold hearings.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS