With lawmakers scheduled to vote on Control Yuan member nominees on Friday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus has battened down the hatches to prevent opposition parties from obstructing the proceedings.
The terms of the current Control Yuan president and members expire at the end of this month.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has nominated former Presidential Office secretary-general and former Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) as the new Control Yuan president, who is to double as the chair of the National Human Rights Commission, pending the approval of at least half of the lawmakers in the legislature.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Times
The Legislative Yuan is scheduled to review the qualifications of Chen tomorrow and those of Control Yuan member nominees from that afternoon to Thursday.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) on Saturday reiterated that his caucus would oppose Tsai’s nominations.
The KMT has said that Chen’s nomination is inappropriate, because several members of her administrative team in Kaohsiung had been impeached by the Control Yuan, and that there are still several cases being probed by the branch that are related to Chen’s terms as mayor from 2006 to 2018.
The KMT caucus has resolved to put caucus officials in charge of tactics to boycott the vote, Lin said, adding that they are going through a range of strategies and that the DPP can “expect a difficult time.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus secretary-general Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said that the DPP caucus would keep its guard up in the days leading up to the vote.
The DPP caucus would work to prevent the KMT caucus storming the legislative chamber and occupying the speaker’s podium as it did at the start of the current extraordinary session, to avoid conflict, Chung said.
“If we do not take precautions, the opposing side might think they stand a chance,” he said.
In other developments, lawmakers are later this month expected to discuss motions to change the cover of the Republic of China passport and highlight “Taiwan” on the fuselages of state-run China Airlines aircraft.
The DPP’s proposal to redesign the passport cover calls for methods to emphasize the English and Chinese-language use of “Taiwan” on the cover, while Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei’s (陳柏惟) proposal seeks to replace the words on the cover with just “Taiwan (台灣)” and allow people to choose between the current version, which bears the titles “Republic of China” and “Taiwan,” and the proposed version.
The DPP and the New Power Party (NPP) caucuses have each tendered a proposal to add Taiwanese motifs to China Airlines aircraft.
The DPP’s proposal says that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should meet with government agencies to devise plans to repaint the aircraft in ways that would highlight Taiwan or its symbols, on the condition that such actions would not affect the nation’s air rights.
The NPP’s motion calls for the “China Airlines” logo to be minimized and the word “Taiwan” or the nation’s outline to be added to aircraft fuselages.
The calls followed reports that European nations have confused Taiwan’s donations of medical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic for those from China, due to the airline’s name.
Both proposals say that any new design must make a distinction between China Airlines and Chinese state-run Air China.
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