The legislature should consider amending the law to bar presidents from simultaneously heading a political party, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday amid flagging approval ratings for President William Lai (賴清德).
Lu made the remarks on the sidelines of the East Asia Peace Forum in Taipei in response to media queries on whether Lai should resign as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman.
Lu, who was former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) vice president from 2000 to 2008, said her suggestion was not aimed at Lai.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
When Chen was simultaneously president and DPP chairman, she had told him he should be the head of state for all Taiwanese, Lu said, adding that she told former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) the same thing when she was in both roles.
The legislature should amend the Political Parties Act (政黨法) to bar presidents from leading political parties, as being involved in partisan activities is a distraction from governance, she said.
For Lai to resign as DPP chairman and be “the head of state for all Taiwanese” might help his approval rating, she added.
The Chen administration invited figures from outside the DPP to join the Cabinet, including making retired air force general Tang Fei (唐飛) premier, Lu said.
Governance is not an election campaign and working alongside talented people without regard for their political affiliation would boost popular support and national unity, she said.
While Lu has not officially withdrawn from the DPP, in May 2018 she said that it had lost its founding spirit.
Asked about foreign affairs, Lu said that exchanges via non-governmental channels are a vital part of diplomacy, citing her trip to South Korea to attend an Armistice Day event, commemorating the deal in 1953 that ended fighting in the Korean War.
All Taiwanese can be ambassadors for the nation, she said, adding that organizers of the Armistice Day event flew a Republic of China flag.
In her speech at yesterday’s forum, which was hosted by non-profits affiliated with Lu, she called for support for the Democratic Asia Union.
Asia should establish a cooperative framework, as Europe has done, to enable peace, prosperity and political influence from a region that boasts one-quarter of the world’s population, she said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS