Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) yesterday admitted to leaking a private text conversation between DPP lawmakers about draft legislation on same-sex marriage, with party members downplaying the incident and describing the leak as a well-intentioned blunder.
Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) on Monday released a set of screen grabs from a private group chat by the DPP legislative caucus on the messaging application, Line, revealing DPP legislators discussions about the possible repercussions of the legislation.
DPP legislators Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) and Julian Kuo (郭正亮) had been debating the effect of the same-sex marriage legislation on the party’s electoral performance, with Chung criticizing the DPP for seeking political gain by pushing the legislation.
Tuan, who withdrew from the group chat immediately after the conversation was exposed, was criticized for currying favor with young voters with the legislation after Chung wrote that the DPP’s approval ratings among young voters would be “moved to the intensive care unit” in less than six months and the party would lose the support of the younger generation to the New Power Party if it does not handle the same-sex marriage issue properly.
Lo yesterday admitted to leaking the private conversation to a friend, a priest who has questioned the DPP’s stance on same-sex marriage.
In an apology sent to the DPP caucus chat group, Lo said he sent the screen shots of the conversation to the friend in a bid to communicate with him about DPP policy, but that the screen shots later went viral.
He apologized for the leak and its consequences, and quit the chat group to rebuild trust among caucus members.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said Lo’s attempt to get the party’s policy across was out of good intentions and his apology was sincere, so Lo had earned the forgiveness of all of the DPP’s legislators.
Saying that she forgave Lo immediately after he owned up to the leak, Kuan added that caucus members trust each other.
“The event was caused by negligence and there is no factor that could ruin the trust between us,” Kuan said.
The incident was a “blessing in disguise,” as Internet users had supported the party for its in-depth discussion of social issues, she said.
DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the incident showed that the party is democratic and progressive, as caucus members engaged in a rational debate about a key issue to come up with a viable solution.
“The DPP does not excuse itself from the controversial issue of marriage equality, but instead takes the initiative to lead the legislation,” she said.
Chung and former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), who also accused Tuan of manipulating the same-sex marriage issue, are seeking political gain by voicing criticism of the DPP over the incident, as both are competing for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination for the Taipei mayoral election next year, Wu said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS