President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should clarify his duties as president, sack his premier and abandon economic policies that ignore China’s military threat, a group of academics said yesterday.
The Taipei Society, a civic group perceived as pro-independence, challenged the president over his performance on the economy, national sovereignty and human rights since taking office in May.
The group also presented several suggestions to the Ma administration.
Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華), a senior member of the group and a sociology professor at National Chengchi University, expressed concern that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was leading the nation back to a “party-state” government.
The KMT was straying from the principles of democracy since winning both the presidential and legislative elections earlier this year, Ku said.
Ku urged Ma and the KMT to establish a mechanism to guarantee responsible politics with the public’s interests in mind.
“Judging from the legislature’s performance in recent months, the KMT failed to take advantage of its majority in the legislature to pass laws that would benefit the public,” Ku told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
In addition to stalling sunshine laws, the KMT allowed the four agreements on cross-strait sea transport, flights and postal services as well as food safety signed by the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) to escape a legislative vote, he said.
The agreements took effect by default after the deadline for a legislative review passed.
“The KMT is abandoning its duties and obligations in the legislature, and this is a violation of constitutional politics ... If the Ma administration and the KMT continues to abuse power, the party may suffer in the upcoming elections,” he said.
Academia Sinica research fellow Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源) said that Ma had failed to clarify his duties as president, had interfered with the Cabinet’s decision-making process and had failed to establish a full advisory mechanism to hear differing opinions on important issues.
Another executive member of the group, Lu Shih-hsiang (盧世祥) said Ma’s policies would make the nation’s economy too dependent on China, which flatly ignored the military threat posed by Taiwan’s rival across the Strait.
The group also said Ma had failed to stand up for freedom of assembly during the protests against ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) in October.
In addition, his rejection of a proposed visit by the Dalai Lama had hurt the nation’s human rights image, they said.
The president should replace Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), the group said, and allow his replacement to form a new Cabinet, abandon pro-China policies and ensure that the government does not interfere in the media.
It also called for a meeting between Ma and Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to push for social and political reconciliation.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but