The legislature began vetting the nominees for Control Yuan president and vice president yesterday on the first day of a three-day review of Control Yuan nominations in the final week of the extraordinary session.
Chang Po-ya (張博雅), who heads the Central Election Commission (CEC) and has been nominated to head the Control Yuan, has been dogged by controversy over her “fast handling” — as commission head — of a case involving Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) status as a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-at-large.
Chang reportedly processed the KMT’s documents to recall Wang as a lawmaker as a “high priority” case to get it passed immediately, signing off on the documents within 30 minutes of them appearing at the commission right before its office closed for the day.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Chang yesterday rebuffed the accusation.
“[Wang’s] case was processed in a ‘standard’ manner, rather than as a ‘high priority’ case. It was handled in the same way as the cases of former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) and former Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] legislator Chiu Chang (邱彰),” she told reporters before the question-and-answer session began.
Chang said it was impossible for her to intervene in the alleged political feud between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Wang — which gave rise to the attempted recall of Wang’s legislator status — and that she has been “smeared” by attempts to portray her actions as out of the ordinary.
During yesterday’s session, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said Chang was“[Ma’s] political hatchet man,” who is being promoted for her “excellent performance.”
Chen also said that a DPP questionnaire distributed to the 29 Control Yuan nominees, at least 72 percent of them had refused to answer whether they would have agreed — if they had been in the Control Yuan at the time — with the attempt to impeach former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘).
Huang was convicted in March of leaking confidential information to Ma about an on-going investigation into allegations of influence-peddling involving Wang and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in September last year.
A motion to impeach Huang was voted down twice by the Control Yuan before he tendered his resignation on his own.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) questioned the Control Yuan’s independence and neutrality as one of the five branches of government, saying that neither Huang nor Keelung Mayor Chang Tung-jung (張通榮), both of whom were later indicted, were impeached by the Control Yuan, while members of the former DPP government were impeached and yet courts later found them not guilty of the charges against them.
The PFP lawmaker, as well as DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), asked Chang whether she would agree to make public how Control Yuan members vote in an impeachment case. Such votes are now conducted by secret ballot.
“What the citizens want is a more transparent government, as called for by [the Sunflower movement]. We would like to see whether the members can exercise impartial judgement,” Hsiao said.
Chang said the Control Yuan is required by law to vote via secret ballots, but she personally considers it feasible to publicize information, such as the members’ statements in support of or opposing an impeachment.
Control Yuan vice presidential nominee Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川), a Puyuma Aborigine and former head of the Council of Indigenous Peoples, was reminded by several KMT legislators who are Aborigines that the indigenous people of this nation face a dire situation and their rights need be further protected.
Hsiao asked Sun not to stay silent about Aboriginal rights “just to be the Han Chinese’s high-ranking official,” referring to remarks that Ma has made about Aborigines.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but