The Kaohsiung City Council opened its new session on Tuesday, with its speaker and vice speaker still in police custody on vote-buying charges. The TSU's legislative caucus and more than a dozen non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Kaohsiung staged a protest, demanding that all the councilors implicated in the vote-buying scandal step down voluntarily so that by-elections can be held. A clash between demonstrators and police resulted in injuries to some TSU legislators and reporters.
The city council immediately issued a statement condemning the violence and calling on "people not to trample on democracy in the name of democracy or shame Kaohsiung City."
The statement leaves one wondering whether to laugh or cry. Apparently it was a case of the thief crying "Thief!" A city council that shames the entire country is now accusing the protesters of shaming the city.
We are absolutely against violence, but people who criticize Tuesday's clash are missing the point. They are deliberately trying to divert attention from the facts and sideline the demands of the protesters.
What's even more unfortunate was that only TSU legislators attended the protest, while the DPP voiced support from Taipei. KMT and PFP lawmakers were perhaps too busy scheming for next year's presidential election, or perhaps their two chairmen, Lien Chan (連戰) and James Soong (宋楚瑜), were still basking in the euphoria of their nominations to run for the presidency by their respective parties on Sunday. They may have forgotten that when the vote-buying scandal broke the parties scrambled to expel their bribe-taking councilors and vowed to push for the recall of the speaker and vice speaker. Now the two parties seem to be interested only in grabbing power next year. For them, Kaohsiung's vote-buying scandal has long ago blown away with the wind.
They are wrong. The people's anger is not gone yet. The KMT-PFP reticence on the matter only reflects their political miscalculation. Having talked so much about eradicating "black gold" corruption, the two parties have once again proved how hypocritical they are.
The DPP also expressed indignation about the matter on Tuesday. After a meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee, committee member Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬), speaking on the party's behalf, immediately called on Kaohsiung's residents and NGOs to push for the recall of the council's speaker and vice speaker. Kao also criticized the KMT and the PFP for blocking the DPP's proposals for reforming the city council.
To resolve the legal and political problems posed by the vote-buying scandal, the DPP has already proposed amendments to the Law on Local Government Systems (地方制度法) and the Election and Recall Law (選舉罷免法). Under the new amendments, council speakers and vice speakers could be suspended from their posts once they are found guilty in court. They could also be recalled in the first year of their term, as opposed to having to wait until the second year, as is the case now. The proposal has been sent to the Legislative Yuan for review.
Kao angrily slammed the opposition camp on Tuesday for blocking the proposed amendments. He also called on them to quickly negotiate and pass the bills so as to resolve the problems facing the Kaohsiung City Council and to prevent similar scandals in the future.
Old habits don't die easily, however. The KMT is a party with "black gold" roots while the PFP is one of the KMT's splinter parties. They have vowed time and again to eradicate the cancer of "black gold," but their vows have turned out to be all bark, no bite.
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to