Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) announced his withdrawal from the party yesterday.
Approached for comment at the legislature, Shen, a four-term DPP legislator, said he had stayed "long enough" and "done enough" for the party.
Shen said there was no need for him to stay in the party now that "bad boys" within the DPP felt nothing about his outspokenness against them. He did not elaborate.
"I am a good DPP member. People [in the party] just don't like me," he said.
Lee Cheng-yee (
Shen had been a member since 1992 when he ran for legislator under the party flag.
However, he was long considered a "loner" because of his outspokenness about the party's policies or other members with whom he disagreed.
He created a stir before the 2004 presidential poll when he gave credence to claims by tycoon-turned-fugitive Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪) that the businessman had given a donation to first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) 10 years earlier.
Chen Yu-hao said Shen had been a witness to the transaction.
Shen's unwillingness to contradict Chen Yu-hao's allegations threatened to derail President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election campaign in the week before the poll.
Shen has been sharply criticized ever since by pan-green supporters, who denounced him for being a DPP apostate and for making connections with pro-blue figures.
In April 2004, Shen urged pro-green politicians to stop using the phrase "love Taiwan" as an encapsulation of their pro-localization stance, saying the phrase was detrimental to ethnic harmony between the majority Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Mainlanders who came to Taiwan after 1945.
In May this year, Shen suffered an embarrassing defeat in the party's legislative primary along with 10 other members of DPP's former New Tide faction.
DPP Central Standing Committee member Huang Ching-lin (
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (
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
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
Firefighters are working to put out a fire on Taipei’s Yangmingshan (陽明山) reported earlier this morning. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The Taipei Fire Department said it received a report of a fire at Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) at 11:17am, dispatching four command vehicles, 16 firetrucks, one ambulance and 72 personnel. The fire is still burning on about 250m² of land, according to initial estimates, as eyewitnesses reported seeing smoke rising from the mountain. The Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters on Facebook said the Qixingshan (七星山) hiking trail starting from Xiaoyoukeng and the Xiaoyoukeng parking lot are closed as firefighters work to put
RSS