The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) yesterday unveiled its campaign theme for the legislative elections in January, vowing to push policies that improve public livelihoods, promote Aboriginal rights and ensure optimal land use to serve public interests.
Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, GPT co-convener Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) urged the public to “stand up” for the values they believe is best for Taiwan, to change the nation for the better.
He said society has benefited greatly because of the people who stood up to right the government’s wrongs, such as the residents of New Taipei’s Gongliao District (貢寮), whose strong protests prompted the authorities to halt the construction of the problematic Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Accusing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of favoring big businesses, while neglecting the needs of ordinary people, he said this has led to more lenient laws and in turn caused many of today’s social problems.
“Taiwan is where we live and where we die. However, after two changes of government, it is becoming clearer that the KMT’s and the DPP’s professed love for this land is manifested in their connivances with corporations, which has seized our land, destroyed the environment and marginalized the farming sector, giving rise to a host of food safety scandals,” he said.
The government has set low corporate tax rates and cut the budget for social welfare to help businesses cope with global competition, but the fruit of the nation’s economic development has not trickled down to the public, Lee said.
He called on the public to support the party, saying that the GPT has served as a government watchdog for more than a decade and has always stood on the side of social justice.
GPT standing committee member Biho Wilanglawa, an Amis and Dayan Aborigine, said that many bills on protecting Aboriginal rights have languished in the legislature because of political bartering between the KMT and DPP, and the ones that have been passed are mostly empty legislation that does not bring any real benefits to Aborigines.
The party acknowledges the role of Aborigines and will fight for their rights and welfare in the legislature, he said.
GPT Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli office secretary-general Tang Lin-hsiang (湯琳翔) said that, starting today, the party would visit campuses and other public areas to talk, listen and record public expectations for the nation.
‘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
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
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