A group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) young turks will propose a party reform plan this week, Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said after resigning as the party's deputy secretary-general yesterday.
Tuan said the group would review and reflect on three key issues: national identity, the party's core values and its nomination system.
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) suffered a crushing defeat in the March 22 presidential election -- the latest in a string of electoral failures that included the Jan. 12 legislative election and the local government poll in December 2005.
The party's Central Executive Committee on Thursday established a task force composed of party members who had served as secretary-general of the 21-year-old party to review the party's policy.
Tuan said yesterday that pro-localization should not be the only distinction between the DPP and other parties and should not be used as a tool to attack fellow party members.
He said that the party should seek to regain the public's trust that it would put its core values into practice if it returns to power and would end abuses of the party's nomination system.
Joining Tuan were Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (
At a separate setting yesterday, Hsieh dismissed a Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) report that said his decision to retract his resignation as party chairman had angered President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who wanted Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to take over as acting chairman.
Hsieh on Friday withdrew his resignation, which he had tendered earlier last week following his election defeat. He agreed to stay until a new chairman is elected in May.
The paper quoted an anonymous source from the Presidential Office as saying that Hsieh initially agreed that Chang should take over as acting chairman.
"What newspapers said is not necessarily the truth," Hsieh said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include
RSS