The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday it would hold a series of rallies this month and stage a mass protest next month against the “inaction and incompetence” of the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and to let the voice of the people be heard.
“The DPP’s Central Standing Committee has passed a resolution to hold a series of events with the theme: ‘Needed: livelihood, democracy and reform,’” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said after the committee meeting yesterday.
The public and the DPP have no choice but to take to the streets to voice their anger, because the Ma administration has either stayed inactive on people’s suffering or caused it due its failed policies, Su said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“Ma has refused to reshuffle the Cabinet and to call a national affairs conference to solve the nation’s fiscal problems. He has remained silent on the controversial Next Media Group (壹傳媒集團) deal and China’s infringement of Taiwan’s sovereignty with its new passports. Most of all, he has failed to boost the economy,” Su said.
DPP caucus whip Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) added that while people are lamenting their poverty, the government has shown little concern for their problems by instead focusing on whether to continue to pay year-end bonuses to public-sector retirees.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the party has applied for the right to protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office on at least three dates this month, adding that the party would unveil its policies and the main thrust of next month’s demonstration at the rallies.
Lin also criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has warned people about using passport stickers made by the DPP as a counter move to Beijing’s inclusion of Taiwan on its new passports, saying the stickers are “a violation of regulations and could cause trouble for tourists when clearing customs and entering foreign countries.”
The stickers are for passport covers rather than inside passports and there would be no violation of regulations, Lin said.
In related developments, amid a lingering dispute in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over a government-proposed plan to limit year-end pension benefits for government retirees, Examination Yuan President John Kuan (關中) yesterday called on the Executive Yuan to stick to its reforms.
“The government has to insist on the policy that was decided on or risk creating doubts about its determination to carry out reforms,” Kuan said in an interview on Hit FM radio.
In response to concerns raised by the DPP over what it said are illegitimate and unfair privileges granted to 445,708 retirees from the military, the government, public schools and state-owned enterprises, at an amount equivalent to 1.5 months of their pre-retirement salary, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) in October proposed reducing the recipients to two groups of people.
He proposed that only retirees or the families of deceased retirees who receive a monthly pension of less than NT$20,000 and families of retirees who were killed, injured or disabled in wars or on military exercises should receive the benefit this year.
That would slash the budget to a 19th of its original size, which was approximately NT$20.2 billion (US$697 million), and the number of recipients to about 40,000.
However, KMT lawmakers remain divided on the issue.
Executive Yuan Secretary-General Steven Chen (陳士魁) said yesterday that the Cabinet remained steadfast in distributing the bonuses in accordance with the premier’s plan.
The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration is studying how to institutionalize the year-end bonuses and is expected to come up with a plan by Monday, he said.
There is a possibility that pension payments could vary according to economic conditions, Steve Chen added.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS