Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Candidates deserve equal standards

Taipei Times Editorial

Without free and fair elections, Taiwan cannot consider itself a genuine democracy. A recent concern has emerged over the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) which includes an article some deem discriminatory against candidates who do not hail from the main political parties.

Article 59 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act stipulates that only candidates nominated by political parties that have garnered 5 percent of the votes cast in the most recent elections can dispatch monitors to polling stations.

Questions abound over Penghu crash

Taipei Times

Wreckage of the TransAsia Airways plane crash is strewn over Sisi Village in Penghu yesterday.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times

The crash of TransAsia Airways (復興航空) Flight GE222 outside Magong Airport on Penghu Wednesday evening killed 48 people aboard the plane and injured 10, officials said yesterday.

Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director-General Jean Shen (沈啟) said that rescuers had located 48 bodies at the crash site in Sisi Village (西溪), but many of the bodies were not intact.

Ma’s tactics are greatest concern

The Liberty Times Editorial

The government’s concerns over South Korea resurfaced as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited Seoul for a summit meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye this month.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are framing the free-trade agreement (FTA) that China and South Korea are planning to sign by the end of this year as a disaster, saying that the nation’s economy will collapse if the legislature does not approve the cross-strait service trade agreement promptly. Surprisingly, even in the 21st century, they still think that they can fool Taiwanese with their obscurantist policies. The problem clearly is government stupidity and a bad president.

Dapu demolition marked with painting and video

Taipei Times

A mural titled Four Villains by artist and activist Liu Tsung-jung is pictured by the site of a demolished pharmacy in Dapu Township, Miaoli County, on Friday last week.
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times

In commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the demolition of the Chang Pharmacy in Dapu Borough (大埔), Miaoli County, social activist and artist Liu Tsung-jung (劉宗榮) and others on Friday last week finished a painting on the building’s sole remaining wall.

On July 18 last year, four houses in Jhunan Township’s (竹南) Dapu, including the building housing the Chang Pharmacy, were demolished against the will of their owners to make way for a controversial science park extension project.

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