Citizen Congress Watch urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday to push legislative reform now that he is also chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The legislative watchdog said in a press release that it expected Ma to allow the legislature to approve or reject the content of any cross-strait agreements signed by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), instead of allowing the agreements to take effect automatically.
The group was referring to Article 95 of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), which stipulates that a cross-strait agreement takes effect automatically 30 days after being inked if the legislature fails to reject it.
The pacts signed during the second and third rounds of talks between the SEF and ARATS last year and earlier this year all took effect automatically even though the mechanism had drawn criticism.
SUPERVISORY ROLE
“The legislature should review the content of every cross-strait agreement. As the fourth round of cross-strait talks approaches, whether or not [the government] should sign an ECFA [economic cooperation framework agreement] with China has become the subject of debate,” the group said.
The Ma government said signing an ECFA with China would boost the flow of goods and personnel across the Taiwan Strait and improve the country’s ties with ASEAN nations, but the pan-green camp said Taiwan’s economic muscle and its sovereignty would be jeopardized by over-reliance on the Chinese market.
The CCW also urged Ma to lead the KMT in pushing through more “sunshine bills,” such as obliging legislators who fail to complete their terms to return the government’s election stipends given them after winning their seats.
The watchdog group urged Ma to listen to civic groups instead of insisting on pushing through party-proposed amendments or bills such as the rural revitalization act (農村再生條例) and a proposed amendment to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
WARNING
“The KMT has undergone major changes over the past year. It occupies the majority of legislative seats and has regained executive power. However, it seems to have been going downhill since the start of the year,” the CCW said. “We hope Chairman Ma takes heed and ponders the KMT’s future.”
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS