Representatives of the public yesterday clashed over President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) follow-up nominations of Control Yuan members, with members of the pan-blue camp calling the nominations biased.
The Legislative Yuan held a hearing to solicit views from the public on nominations to fill 11 seats left vacant after 29 members retired in 2014 during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term.
Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元), a lawyer for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), targeted nominee Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), who served as Presidential Office secretary-general under then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Chen Shih-meng allegedly said that, if approved, he would purge certain law enforcers whom he deemed to be “leftovers from the party-state era,” which shows that he has a distinct political stance, Yeh said.
He urged the DPP to rescind Chen Shih-meng’s nomination and called on him to decline the position.
Yeh also disputed Tsai’s nominations of former Taipei Department of Legal Affairs commissioner Yang Fang-ling (楊芳玲) and former DPP legislators Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and Walis Perin.
Yang served less than three years as a commissioner under Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and before that was a professor, suggesting that she lacks experience in politics and the credibility to serve as a Control Yuan member, Yeh said.
Regarding Tien and Walis Perin, the DPP should clarify whether the party treats the Control Yuan as a “recycle bin” for former lawmakers, he said.
During a cross-caucus negotiation last week, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) called the Control Yuan a KMT affiliate and said that the purpose of the nominations was to “even out” the negative influence exerted by incumbent members nominated by Ma, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology law professor Wu Wei-chih (吳威志) said.
Ker’s remarks showed that the 11 nominees are tasked with a “political mission,” Wu said, adding that as the DPP believes the Control Yuan to be a KMT affiliate, it should ask the Executive Yuan’s Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee to investigate the Control Yuan rather than nominate new members.
However, until the constitutional system is amended, having too many vacancies at the Control Yuan could have negative consequences, National Chung Cheng University College of Law dean Liu Chien-hung (劉建宏) said.
Yang, lawyer Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) and former judge Tsai Chung-yi’s (蔡崇義) nominations would help resolve long-standing national issues, as they all have legal backgrounds, he said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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