President Chen Shui-bian (
For more than a week, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has engaged in sometimes bitter infighting over Vice President Annette Lu's (
At yesterday's Central Executive Committee meeting, Chen offered only a brief comment when asked what he thought about the debate: "I hope everyone can encourage one another."
His comment came as a response to committee members Yu Hung (
However, Yu and Tsai's proposal met with disagreement from other party officials, who said the rule would contradict the party's enshrined values of democracy and freedom of speech.
While trying to interpret Chen's vague remark, DPP Legislator Lawrence Gao (
"It is a good thing to see everyone reach a consensus on the issue and stop throwing malignant remarks at each other. But using a compulsory rule to restrain each other from talking about it, that goes against the rules of democracy and progress that the party has enshrined," Gao said.
The suggestion that Yu and Tsai put forward to quell the internal squabble was a result of infighting between the sometimes outspoken Lu and her opponents within the party.
Last week, Lu launched an attack on DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (
Lu subsequently lashed out at Chiu, accusing the lawmaker's father, a democracy activist, of acting cowardly during the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident rebellion against the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In response, veteran DPP Legislator Lin Chou-shui (林濁水) yesterday criticized Lu's own integrity in the incident, accusing her of turning in several fellow dissidents when she was being interrogated during the subsequent crackdown.
Lin's remarks prompted another veteran DPP member, Chang Chun-hung (
"People who haven't lived through that disaster, that hell, I hope they won't say anything." Chang told reporters. "They don't have enough credentials to say anything."
Later yesterday, Lin clarified his remarks, saying, "In the atmosphere of terror during the Kaohsiung Incident, many of the people arrested made false confessions under torture."
However, Lin criticized Lu again by saying that everyone was fearful during the repressive era and people shouldn't argue about who was more courageous at that time.
"Even though Lu was not the one turning in most of her fellow dissidents, she certainly contributed to the turning in of some of her fellows," Lin said.
The DPP's Central Executive Committee meeting yesterday approved the schedule for holding a primary for the presidential election, spanning from late October to mid-December.
According to the schedule, the party will announce the official nomination for the presidential candidate on Dec. 10 and then the presidential candidate will subsequently announce his running mate during the DPP's National Assembly on Dec. 13.
Currently, Chen is the only one within the DPP intending to run in the presidential election.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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