The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday accused the government of inaction following the alleged attack by a Japanese visitor on a comfort woman statue erected next to the party’s Tainan chapter offices.
Japanese Representative to Taiwan Mikio Numata must apologize for the incident, but the government has shied away from responding to the “intrusive and impudent” action of Mitsuhiko Fujii, a member of the Alliance for Truth About Comfort Women, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) told a news conference in Taipei.
Fujii can allegedly be seen in surveillance footage kicking the statue on Thursday last week during a visit to Taiwan to deliver an invitation to the Tainan Alliance for Comfort Women’s Rights to a public debate on the comfort women issue.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Fujii lied when he accused the KMT of altering the footage and said he had only stretched his leg because he felt a “numbness” in it, Ko said.
The Ministry of the Interior must list Fujii as an unwelcome person and Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) must lodge a formal protest with Tokyo over the incident, the caucus said.
Calling Fujii’s claims “pathetic and shameless,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said Fujii’s action had hurt the dignity of Taiwanese women and was intolerable.
As the nation’s first female leader, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) silence over the incident was disheartening, Wang said.
Wang said she has completed a draft amendment to protect the rights of former comfort women and their families, which the incident showed are in need of strengthening.
Her proposal stipulates a prison term of up to one year and a fine of up to NT$10,000 for people who hurt the dignity of former comfort women through discriminatory actions, which would include disrespecting statues, she said.
The UN Human Rights Committee in 1996 defined comfort women as girls and women from several Asian nations who were abducted and forced into sexual slavery prior to and during World War II by the Japanese Imperial Army, Hua Hsia Social Welfare Association director-general Jennifer Wang (王如玄) told the news conference.
Japan and South Korea signed an agreement on Dec. 28, 2015, to resolve the comfort women issue, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issuing an apology and Tokyo issuing compensation, but Taiwanese comfort women have not yet received the apology and compensation they are due, Wang said.
“I have often wondered: Are Taiwanese not as human as South Koreans?” she said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
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
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
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS