Activist groups commenced a new series of “Bluebird movement” activities in Taoyuan on Monday night, beginning nationwide public forums and recall drives aiming to oust Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators who “rammed through three amendments to destroy Taiwan’s democracy.”
At a parking lot behind Taoyuan Railway Station, Economic Democracy Union (EDU) convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) criticized “those power-abusive KMT legislators” and told the audience that “we must hold them accountable for their actions in the legislature... We cannot allow them to deprive us of our democratic rights and to steal Taiwan’s democracy.”
Lai called on those present to join a civil disobedience and resistance campaign to fight what he called the “extremist group” in the KMT led by caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁).
Photo: Lin Min-chen, Taipei Times
“This Fu extremist group has carried out so many political maneuvers that the result is a serious crisis facing society and the government. It is not like the old days when the KMT regime imposed martial law and it had total control of the Legislative Yuan. It is time for the democracy movement to rise up again,” Lai said.
He concluded his address by getting the audience, estimated at more than 800, to shout out the slogans: “Defend Taiwanese democracy” and: “Oust KMT legislators,” before outlining a series of “Bluebird movement” activities in cities and counties nationwide.
After launching recall drives against KMT legislators elected in Taoyuan, events are also scheduled in New Taipei City on Thursday next week, in Taichung on Jan. 8, and in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties on Jan. 15, Lai said, adding that there are also plans for activities in Hualien and Taitung counties, but the dates are still under consideration.
EDU and Taiwan Citizen Front officials said they are working to organize three main activities — launching recall drives, civil disobedience and holding KMT legislators accountable at public events.
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