Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidates for the Nov. 24 local elections have said that they would close ranks around President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), even as they acknowledged that opposition to pension reforms has galvanized pan-blue camp voters.
The pension cuts for public-school teachers and civil servants, which are scheduled to take effect on July 1, have raised concerns among DPP members that a fresh round of high-profile clashes by lawmakers could energize the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), sources said.
The new pension schemes and the Ministry of Education’s April decision to not approve the appointment of Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as National Taiwan University president have sparked a backlash from the KMT, DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) said last month, adding that the resultant confrontation between reform and anti-reform forces would take center stage in the run-up to the elections.
“DPP members need to understand, we must be prepared to reform even at the cost of political power, which is better than doing nothing because we are scared of reforms,” Hung said.
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Sunday said that polls showed the KMT voter base consolidating in support of KMT mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中).
“I will firmly support the reforms of the Tsai administration, but I will not give up on these votes on account of pension reforms,” he said.
Yao served seven years as an administrator in various government positions and considers many civil servants personal friends, so he would explain the government’s policy to the city’s civil servants, he added.
DPP Tainan mayoral candidate Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that pension reforms have proved highly controversial and poses a daunting challenge to his campaign.
Even in the deep-green regions of Tainan, Chiayi and Kaohsiung, candidates have had to sit through the complaints of constituents and listen as they vent their frustration before patiently and rationally explaining the issue to win them over, he said.
“No matter how reasonable pension cuts are in light of fiscal realities, people tend to lose their temper when they find out at the bank that their savings are less than they thought, even by just a few dozen New Taiwan dollars,” he said.
He said he had met a retired teacher on the campaign trail who complained that his monthly pension is to fall from about NT$65,000 to NT$50,000 after the reforms.
“As a candidate, I cannot tell him that NT$50,000 a month is not a trivial sum. So I have to let them finish complaining and then make my apologies,” he said.
Pension reform is necessary as a matter of fairness to the nation’s next generations and to maintain the state’s fiscal health, DPP Hsinchu County commissioner candidate Cheng Chao-fang (鄭朝方) said.
The DPP forging ahead with pension reform in July despite the looming elections should demonstrate the urgency of the reforms, he said.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we