Civic groups and New Power Party (NPP) legislators yesterday said that the party has not provided substantial help to Kaohsiung land rights advocates, following media reports that the party had involved itself in a fight against a city-sponsored demolition in a bid to lay the foundations for its platform in the 2018 local elections.
“Our main source of help has come from extremely small political parties such as the Free Taiwan Party and Green Party Taiwan,” said Cheng Yuan-wen (鄭淵文), head of a self-help association for residents of Kaohsiung’s Dagouding (大溝頂) — a row of houses in the city’s Qishan District (旗山) that is slated for demolition as part of efforts to improve an underlying drainage canal.
“Our only connection with the NPP is that we asked [NPP legislators] Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Kawlo Iyun Pacidal to hold a Taipei press conference, that is all. They absolutely have not sent aides to help us,” he said.
While Kawlo had helped them request government documents, neither legislator had agreed to help with the news conference, Hung said, adding that Kawlo’s office director had spoken at a rally held by the self-help association last month.
Dissatisfaction with the city’s resettlement plans has caused more than 30 residents to resist the demolition, which the city has scheduled for next week.
Media reports earlier this week said Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had asked President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to put pressure on the NPP to stop “interfering” in the Dagouding controversy, after NPP party aides reportedly encouraged residents to resist resettlement.
“We welcome any progressive forces paying attention to Kaohsiung issues, but we cannot accept those progressive forces standing with the traditionalist and ‘feudal’ Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in resisting the Kaohsiung City Government,” she said earlier this week, in response to media queries.
The NPP and DPP cooperated closely during January’s national elections, but are expected to compete against each other for votes in the 2018 local elections.
“It is not that the NPP is ‘interfering’ in anything — these kinds of issues are what we have always cared about,” Kawlo said, while acknowledging that a party aide had spoken at the self-help association’s rally.
“We definitely respect the decision of the city government,” she said, adding the party was still in the process of understanding the issue, with no plans to stake a definite position or provide help to residents before the city’s demolition deadline next week.
NPP Secretary-General Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏) said the party planned to compete in all counties and cities nationwide during the 2018 local elections and would likely establish offices in both Tainan and Kaohsiung.
There were not yet any specific plans for how the party would compete in Kaohsiung, she said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final