The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday criticized President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on the constitutional system, calling it full of double standards and contradictions.
In Hsinchu City yesterday, Lai focused on the constitutional system in the third of his 10 lectures on national unity.
The KMT caucus said Lai was wrong in saying that Taiwanese did not have a hand in creating the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, as 18 representatives from the then-Taiwan Province participated in the process.
Photo: CNA
“Does the president lack the ability to search with Google? Or is he deliberately lying to fabricate the claim that the ROC had not substantially ruled Taiwan before 1949?” it said, adding that it is a serious issue that Lai should respond to.
Lai said that legislative reform bills passed last year by the opposition-controlled legislature were unconstitutional, and that amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Police Personnel Management Act (警察人員人事條例), as well as reviews of the government’s general budget, were not in line with societal expectations.
“Were these not what you [Lai] and the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] had long advocated?” the KMT caucus said.
The amendments are to increase government oversight, and reinforce local governments’ and people’s rights and autonomy, to prevent the DPP from using the Executive Yuan to control people, exploit local governments and monopolize power, so of course Lai opposes them, it said.
Lai said that the “Bluebird movement” and civic groups that initiated recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers were self-driven by citizens, but some recall campaign leaders have been reported meeting often with Lai, it said.
The president has been setting a double standard, deceiving people, inciting conflict, and purging and monitoring people since he took office, the KMT caucus said, adding that his speech highlighted his hypocrisy and arrogance.
Taiwanese do not need this kind of government, nor does it want the DPP to waste government resources on a malicious recall campaign to sabotage the constitutional system and democratic values, it said, urging people to vote against the recalls on July 26 to teach Lai and the DPP a lesson.
Separately, the TPP said that Lai’s speech was a “dictator’s” failed lesson on “constitutional democracy.”
At the core of constitutional democracy is government oversight, and checks and balances, not administrative dominance or presidential autocracy, the TPP said.
Lai has unilaterally misinterpreted the constitutional system, because he wants to stay in office forever without oversight, it said.
The DPP had long advocated for abolishing the Control Yuan, but regrettably, Lai is now embracing the Five-Power Constitution, it said.
The president blocked legislative reform bills and protected his government allies through the Constitutional Court, it said, adding that people can see Lai has discarded the constitutional democracy, supervision, and checks and balances that the DPP had previously regarded as sacrosanct.
On Lai quoting Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jane Addams in saying that “the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy,” the TPP said the president’s arbitrary actions and authoritarian tendencies are “the real lesion on Taiwan’s democracy.”
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
RSS