The Presidential Office's list of 29 nominees for positions in the Control Yuan attracted criticism yesterday from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps as lawmakers questioned the qualifications of nominees and alleged they were receiving "political rewards."
Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday morning announced the list of nominees -- including for Control Yuan president and vice president -- ratified by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Chen nominated senior presidential advisor Clement Chang (
Chang, 75, is a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and founder of Tamkang University. Chang served as speaker of the Taipei City Council from 1981 to 1989 and was minister of transportation and communications from 1989 to 1991.
Hsiao is a professor of sociology and a senior academic at the Academia Sinica.
Six other nominees are incumbent Control Yuan members, while eight nominees are serving or former legislators. Eight of the nominees are women.
Conspicuously, Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) chairman Chao Shou-po (
"It is a beautiful list of names," Su said, adding that he hoped the legislature would review and pass the nominations as soon as possible.
Some have challenged Chang's qualifications in light of his resignation in 1991 as minister of transportation and communications following the Hualon Corp financial scandal.
But Su defended Chang and his qualifications, saying the courts had cleared Chang of any involvement in the Hualon case and that Chang had been "wronged."
"Chang's nomination was in no way a `political reward,'" Su said.
"Chang has considerable experience in politics and is lucid in his thinking. I don't think Chang's age is a problem and his health is in good condition as far as I know," he said.
However, lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) criticized the nominations, saying that the list was for "political rewards" and that the nominees did not meet the public's expectations.
"I don't think the whole slate can reflect the expectations of the public," DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (
"I suggest that our caucus should not force us to support all of the nominees on the back of party discipline and instead allow us to make up our own mind when voting," Lee said.
Outgoing DPP Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
"Chang is neither an impressive nor a suitable candidate. Can't the president find a better candidate?" Shen asked.
TSU caucus whip Huang Chung-yuan (黃宗源) also voiced opposition to the nomination. "If the president of the Control Yuan has to be a member of the pan-blue camp, I think former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) is more suitable
than Chang in terms of the expectations of society."
"Hsiao fits the presidency better than Chang," Huang added. "But I think President Chen should disregard the consideration of political parties in nominating Control Yuan members."
Huang expressed disappointment that former TSU Legislator Cheng Cheng-lung (程振隆) had not been nominated, saying Cheng is more professional than TSU secretary-general Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), who was nominated by Chen as one
of the Control Yuan member.
Meanwhile, in response to threats from the pan-blue camp of vetoing the nominations in the legislature, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
"The [Legislative Yuan's] approval of nominations for the Control Yuan is supposed to be a new beginning for dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition parties," Ker said during a news conference. "The KMT and the People First Party are threatening to return the list of nominations prior to it being sent to the Legislative Yuan, which is unreasonable and unconstitutional."
"It will cause the biggest constitutional crisis in our history if the pan-blue camp continues to prohibit its legislators from exercising their right to give approval, as they have done in the past," Ker said.
Ker said that before the elections, Chen promised to nominate a non-DPP member for president of the Control Yuan and had invited the pan-blue camp to recommend candidates. Yet the pan-blue camp had ignored the offer, he said.
"It doesn't make any sense to veto this with the excuse that the president does not respect the opposition parties," Ker said.
Also see story:
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of
RSS