Newly elected DPP legislators expressed their opposition to the party's seniority system in the Legislative Yuan yesterday, but the senior caucus members said they will keep trying to convince the dissenters of the system's merits.
The ruling DPP yesterday held a workshop for its newly elected legislators to help them understand the function of the party's caucus in the Legislative Yuan.
The caucus members explained their new seniority system at the gathering, but newly elected legislators said they opposed the rules.
"Incumbent legislators just want to protect their rights with this seniority system.
"The party's regulations say that every individual party member has equal rights. Allowing senior legislators to choose the committees they want to join before we can, violates the [party's] constitution," said newly elected DPP legislator Chiu Zang (邱彰).
The introduction of the seniority system is a first step in the party's reorganization. Under the system only legislators who have been elected three times can run for key caucus positions. It also states that senior legislators have priority in joining legislative committees.
The regulation, however, is considered a limitation to the potential performance of newly elected lawmakers.
The lawmakers are battling over posts available in the Legislative Yuan's 12 committees. Each committee deliberates bills submitted by the Legislative Yuan and discusses public petitions. Since each committee has a maximum of 21 members, legislators try to get committee positions at the beginning of each session.
"The [seniority] principle was set up by the DPP members of the Fourth Legislative Yuan. We hope that, as members of the Fifth Legislative Yuan, we can make our own decision, based on our own principles," said newly elected DPP legislator Liu Shih-fang (
Responding to the arguments of newly elected legislators, the party's senior lawmakers and caucus leaders said that they will try to sell their freshmen counterparts on the seniority system.
"Every newly elected legislator has the same attitude. They always want to fight for more chances to get recognized. They think that they are the same as re-elected legislators," said DPP caucus leader Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜).
Lin Cho-shui (林濁水), a senior DPP legislator who has actively promoted the seniority system, explained that implementing the system would bring order to a chaotic legislature and help unite the DPP's caucus.
"Without implementing the system, every individual legislator has a chance to show off. But the legislature wouldn't be as united, or powerful enough to take on other government departments," Lin said.
Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), chief executive of the DPP legislative caucus, said that, "reform is difficult, but communication is very important."
Tsai added that the caucus will hold a meeting today aimed at finding a solution to the dispute.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS