Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday called President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) “a dishonest, autocratic” president whose policies have resulted in “the breaking of diplomatic ties and is contravening the Constitution.”
Ma made the remarks while stumping for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidate Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), who is running for the seat representing Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts.
Tsai’s “requests” for the Legislative Yuan to pass the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) severely harmed the interests of the KMT, Ma said.
Photo: CNA
The act requires the KMT to declare its assets and provide proof that they were “legally” obtained, with assets that cannot be proved legal to be considered ill-gotten, Ma said, adding that unlike in court, the act is based on the premise that the party is guilty.
“This goes against the concept of constitutionalism,” Ma said.
Since being sworn into office in May 2016, Tsai has seen the loss of seven diplomatic allies, he said.
“Tsai continues to claim that to vote for her [re-election], to vote for the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], is to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty, but that is exactly the opposite,” Ma said.
The DPP and the Tsai administration have introduced many bills, but many were procedurally incorrect, he said.
Citing the anti-infiltration bill as an example, Ma said it was absurd that the Executive Yuan had not proposed its own version, but instead had the DPP caucus introduce one and sent it to a second reading without due discussion, which could be considered autocracy.
While Tsai claims that her doctoral dissertation from the London School of Economics and Political Science was problem-free, it stands to reason that her dissertation failed to meet the university’s standards of being archived at three libraries, he said.
Tsai has said that she obtained her doctoral degree from the university in 1984.
However, the university requires all doctoral graduates, upon receiving their degrees, to join its alumni association, but Tsai’s name does not appear in association’s records for 1983 or 1984, Ma said.
Ma clarified that he is not saying Tsai did not receive her doctorate, but said that he was starting to have doubts, as she has not dispelled the questions.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
COMMUNITY SPIRIT: As authorities were busy with post-typhoon cleanups elsewhere, residents cleaned fallen leaves and cut small fallen trees blocking the hiking trails All hiking trails damaged by Typhoon Kong-rey have been repaired and has reopened for people who want a refreshing hike in Taipei during the Lunar New Year holiday, a city official said. The Taipei Basin is known for its easily accessible hiking trails. It has more than 130 trails combined into the 92km-long Taipei Grand Trail, which was divided into seven major routes when it was launched by the Taipei City Government in 2018. Last year, a part of the sixth route of the Grand Trail collapsed due to Typhoon Kong-rey, which hit Taiwan in October. The damaged section belongs to one
RSS