President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday asked the Executive Yuan to present a concrete plan to revive the nation’s professional baseball within a month.
In addition to designating next year as the start of a campaign to rejuvenate the national sport, Ma asked the Executive Yuan to form a task force, with Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) serving as the convener.
Ma chaired a national baseball conference at the Presidential Office yesterday morning after 800 fans of professional baseball took to the streets around the Presidential Office on Sunday. Demonstrators appealed to the government to hold the conference following recent game-fixing scandals.
Ma said the mission of the task force was to integrate opinions gathered from yesterday’s meeting and to map out a plan within a month to resuscitate the ailing sport.
Among the participants at the meeting were Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), representatives from the professional league, baseball fans, academics and Sunday’s protesters.
During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Ma said his administration had resolved to address the match-fixing problem and make every effort to provide the best environment possible to “revive the glory” of the sport.
“It is not only professional baseball’s problem, but also the government’s,” he said. “The government will not remain an indifferent spectator.”
Ma said that while he did not expect to resolve the decades-long problem in two hours, it was more effective to prevent game-fixing than to conduct investigations.
“To be able to prevent it is more significant than to catch it,” he said. “And to be able to catch it is more important than to punish it.”
Ma promised last Thursday to amend the Sports Lottery Issue Act (運動彩券發行條例) to toughen the penalty for match-fixing, but yesterday he said he would leave the matter to the task force.
“If the penalty is too high, judges are likely to convict less people,” he said. “Legal revisions will take time, but it is possible. We will be happy to do it if it is effective.”
Ma also suggested that the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) team up with the baseball league and individual teams, deploy manpower to monitor the players and keep close contact with law enforcement offices.
On whether the government will offer tax breaks to those interested in investing in the sport or encourage state-owned businesses to fund professional baseball, Wu said the government would “consider all possibilities” to reduce the burden on baseball teams.
Yu Tsung-ming (余宗鳴), initiator of the Action Alliance of Baseball Fans Who Cannot Take It Anymore (球迷凍未條行動聯盟), said he realized many problems need to be addressed and could not be resolved overnight, but that he was disappointed with a recent MOJ report that he said only rehashed past cases. The ministry also failed to propose any solutions, he said.
Another alliance member, who preferred to be identified as Wen Ge (文哥), said although he thought Ma was “sincere,” he did not see any goals, details, concrete proposals or timetables set at the meeting.
“It remains to be seen whether the plan will materialize,” he said. “If it fails to meet the expectations of the fans, we do not rule out using other means to push our agenda.”
Meanwhile, at a separate setting yesterday, Sports Affairs Council Chairwoman Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said she was confident that the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) would continue next year.
“So far, none of the four professional baseball teams are likely to withdraw. And for now, we are not considering adding more teams,” she said.
Tai said that the council bears the responsibility of saving the nation’s baseball industry. She added, however, that the council cannot subsidize professional baseball because it is a commercial enterprise. The council can only subsidize the part of the sport that involves public interests.
Tai said the council only allocated about NT$6.3 million (US$196,000) to support baseball this year. Starting next year, the council would appropriate NT$110 million annually, she said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS