The abrupt transfer of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) from a hospital in Taipei to a prison hospital in Greater Taichung disrupted the legislative session yesterday, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers occupying the floor to boycott the meeting.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers had planned to request a vote in an attempt to push through the government-backed proposal to stage a national referendum on the fate of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) at the session.
The DPP planned to propose an immediate halt to the construction of the plant, a motion the TSU and the People First Party supported.
Photo: CNA
At 3pm, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) announced that the session was adjourned until Tuesday next week.
Lawmakers engaged in a fierce exchange of words over the relocation of Chen Shui-bian and several KMT lawmakers’ mockery of former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), who previously led several round-the-island walks campaigning for a referendum on the nuclear plant.
With douli, or bamboo hats, on their heads and placards bearing slogans used in Lin’s campaign meant to resemble the clothing of Lin and his followers in the campaign, KMT lawmakers Wu Yu-jen (吳育仁), Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恒), and six others took a short walk on the floor.
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), in the same costume, sat on the ground, mimicking Lin, who staged various sit-in demonstrations in front of the front gate of the legislature to push for the enactment of a referendum act.
While they were performing the imitation, some DPP lawmakers became irritated, with some shouting words such as “shameless” and “nasty.”
DPP lawmakers placed several placards in bird cages with the name of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) in Chinese characters to highlight the flaws in the legislation, one of which was the required turnout of at least half of the electorate for a national referendum to be considered valid.
“The KMT should offer Lin I-hsiung an apology. When the bird-caged Referendum Act was passed, he launched a campaign demanding the KMT make revisions to the law. Now the KMT ridicules him in such a disrespectful manner. It’s disgraceful,” DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said.
KMT legislative caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) was trying to remind the DPP not to forget the spirit and ideals advocated by Lin.
Not long after Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) proposed the referendum, Lin has voiced opposition to the plan, which he called a “prank.”
Lin said that the referendum proposal was “full of political calculations,” and “a cheap trick and a prank that plays the public for fools.”
The Referendum Act laid down “unreasonable and strict” regulations that made the passage of referendums “almost impossible,” Lin said.
‘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
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
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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS