The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday again failed in its attempts to push forward an amendment that would prohibit Taiwanese nationals who hold permanent residency in another country from assuming public office.
The amendment was blocked by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
At yesterday’s deliberation session on legislative amendments, the KMT voted down a motion from the DPP legislative caucus to put its draft amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) on the agenda.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The amendment, which passed the legislature’s Home and Nations Committee on March 9 with support from lawmakers across party lines, states that people in public office must prove they have renounced their foreign permanent residency within six months of taking office.
Public servants are currently required to give up their foreign citizenship a year after taking office.
DPP Legislator Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) called on the KMT not to delay review of the bill, saying that people would finally find out “what the KMT is hiding behind its procrastination strategy.”
Legislative regulations state that a bill on which lawmakers failed to reach consensus during the preliminary review stage can be brought to the legislative floor to proceed to a second and third reading in a vote one month after it has been passed by legislative committees.
“It was not because of the content of the amendment that [the KMT] voted against the bill. Rather, we opposed changing the agenda that had been set by the legislature’s Procedure Committee,” KMT Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said in response to Kao’s objections.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), one of the lawmakers who had initiated the amendment, said the amended regulations, if passed, would help ease public doubts over public servants’ national allegiance.
The DPP has lashed out at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), saying the US green card he held while studying in the US in the 1970s was still valid while he was campaigning for the presidential election.
Ma has said his green card had been invalidated automatically in the mid-1980s when he used a US visa rather than the green card to enter the US.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS