The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it would communicate with its grassroots members following pushback over a directive from President William Lai (賴清德) to refrain from hiring relatives or partners as assistants.
The president’s directive highlights that the DPP is a law-abiding and honest party, but the policy would have a grace period before implementation, DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) said, adding that the policy would have to be ratified by the party’s Central Executive Council.
Lai on Wednesday called for stricter standards among party members, saying that assistants for the people’s representatives should observe Article 26 of the Civil Servants’ Appointment Act (公務人員任用法) and should not hire spouses or third-degree relatives within the same organization, or appoint them to positions of authority, according to a source at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The party would continue efforts to reach out to party members opposing the issue and would unveil how the directive would be implemented in detail at a later date, Han said.
The directive is not aimed at any individual, but rather at the issue of rampant abuse of assistants’ funds by representatives across all parties, Han said.
DPP Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) has been accused of embezzling up to NT$23 million (US$700,792) in assistants’ fees since 2001.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) has been accused of embezzling NT$1.08 million of funds intended for hiring assistants.
DPP New Taipei City Councilor Lin Ping-yu (林秉宥) yesterday on Facebook said that he opposed the directive, stating that the percentage of people hiring third-degree relatives as assistants was in the minority and the party should not enforce a party-wide ban on the issue.
It is illogical, does not conform to the principle of proportionality and could even be a logical fallacy, he said, adding that writing such instructions into the party chapter was trying to make the lives of DPP members more difficult.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
RSS