The rights of homemakers and immigrants are among the top priorities for two small political parties, one of which on Friday named its candidates for November’s local elections.
The Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party — which takes its name from the Japanese word obasan, a term of endearment for an aunt or older woman, in common use in Taiwan — named 15 candidates, while a party for “new residents and immigrants” was launched in Chiayi City yesterday, although it has yet to decide whether it would put up candidates in the Nov. 26 elections.
Mothers and homemakers make up the core membership of the Obasang Party, which registered as a political entity three years ago.
Photo: CNA
At a rally outside the legislature in Taipei, party convener Chiang Min-jung (江敏榕) announced the names of its candidates for city councilor seats in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and for Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北).
Given the party’s membership is 90 percent female, it is unsurprising that 14 of its candidates are women, including Chang Shu-hui (張淑惠) and Ho Yu-jung (何語蓉), who are seeking seats in New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts respectively.
Its only male candidate is Lien Shao-chieh (連紹傑), who is running for city councilor in the combined constituency of Taipei’s Datong (大同) and Zhongshan (中山) districts, Chiang said.
“This is our first slate of candidates,” she said. “We are working across Taiwan at the local community level, holding meetings, mobilizing support and raising funds. We will announce more candidates in the next few weeks, as more people are seeking councilor positions.”
Obasang’s core policies focus on children’s rights, creating a parent-child friendly society, environmental justice, and gender and political equality, she said.
At the rally, party members performed a skit, with a mother portraying the difficulties of taking public transportation with a baby in a stroller.
The performance was intended to show how city governments poorly design streets and public spaces, Chiang said.
The party was formed by parents of young children, single mothers and homemakers after attending local citizen empowerment and education workshops, it said in a statement.
They formed the “Obasang Alliance” to address their common concerns over public policies, a paternalistic education system, lack of family friendly public spaces, children’s rights and pollution, it said.
It said that the “political system was designed with barriers to citizen participation, the worst of which are money and personal networks.”
“Our stance is that extreme financial and social requirements for political participation are anti-democratic,” it said.
“Politics should not be a high wall that blocks regular citizens, who should have fair participation in politics... We feel that social obstacles for women who want to participate in politics are much higher than for men,” it added.
In Chiayi, a group of immigrants and “new residents,” announced the launch of the Happy People Party, saying they have not yet decided whether they would field candidates in this year’s elections.
The party’s Chinese name (台灣新住民黨) means “new residents of Taiwan,” referring to people who immigrated within the past two decades.
Happy People Chairwoman Mach Ngoc Tran (麥玉珍) is a Vietnamese immigrant who also heads the Taiwan Immigrant Association, and party Executive Director Zhang Hanling (張寒玲) is from China.
Both obtained citizenship through their Taiwanese husbands.
The party said it is focused on promoting social harmony, economic prosperity, multicultural identity and “clean politics.”
New residents, many of whom are from China or Southeast Asia, should be able to settle in Taiwan and live with dignity, freedom, equality, and justice for their family and society, the party leaders said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS