Activist groups and civil society organizations called for nationwide demonstrations today to demand transparency in the legislative process, as legislators are scheduled to resume voting on a set of controversial legislative reforms.
Today’s planned activities led by Taiwan Citizen Front are to be a continuation of Tuesday’s protests against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers attempts to pass bills without undergoing what critics say is the proper review process.
In a news release yesterday, Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union and other groups urged people to protest on the streets bordering the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to the north and south all day, starting in the morning.
Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times
“The KMT and TPP are colluding in using a non-transparent ‘black box’ process to circumvent regular deliberation and review processes, refusing to engage in dialogue with Democratic Progressive Party legislators and using violent tactics to push through the bills,” the release said.
“The proposed bills would abuse the authority of legislators and is contrary to the Constitution, undermines the separation of powers among the five branches of government and would endanger national security,” it added.
The massive turnout of more than 30,000 people on Tuesday sent a strong message that people are fed up with deceit and opaque legislative processes, it said.
“What took place in the legislative chamber on Tuesday was not democracy; it was a return to the old days of authoritarian rule,” the release said.
In addition to the main demonstration at the Legislative Yuan, the groups have organized protests in Taichung starting at 1pm and Changhua City starting at 6pm at the cities’ main railway stations.
Protests in southern Taiwan are to be held at Chiayi Cultural Park (嘉義文化公園) in Chiayi City at 6pm, Tainan’s National Museum of Taiwan Literature at 2pm and Kaohsiung’s Central Park (中央公園) at 7pm. In Taitung City, a protest is to begin on Nanjing Road starting at 11am.
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday evening held a sit-in in front of the KMT’s Taipei office with several hundred people holding placards to protest KMT lawmakers.
The slogan were similar to those at Tuesday’s demonstration, including “Legislative abuse of power, democracy sliding backwards” and “No deliberation is not democracy.”
One woman surnamed Wong (黃) said she fled Hong Kong to Taiwan 10 years ago to live in a democratic society, “but now we are facing the KMT selling out Taiwan... We must not let Taiwan become another Hong Kong.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
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
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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at