Round up
Perhaps most interestingly is a survey by the pro-independence Taiwan Thinktank showing 71% of people support putting the ECFA to referendum, with 61% being fans of the DPP's referendum wording and just as many saying they'd go cast a vote.
If you're still confused about the controversy surrounding the decision to merge Taichung and Kaohsiung Cities & Counties, turn Taipei County into its own city, and leave Tainan and other smaller counties pretty much the way they are, let me act as your guide. Update: Looks like Tainan got the upgrade after all!
Being a special municipality means getting a bigger budget. Basically, according to the Local Government Act (地方制度法), the main qualification for promotion to a special municipality is a population of at least 2 million. Greater Tainan falls just short of that (about 1.8 million), which is why the Executive Yuan ended up giving them the promotion.
Many accused the committee of making openly partisan decisions, which was more or less nonsense. What is of concern is the fact that elections in those upgraded areas are going to be postponed until next year, to coincide with Taipei and Kaohsiung City's special municipality elections. The most valid objection is that the move may be unconstitutional. We'll see how that pans out.
Moving on ... Saturday, DPP chair Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) joined the newly established Taiwan Youth Anti-Communist Corps, a move I just shake my head at. Why adopt all the KMT's former language on these topics? I don't think it lends the cause any more legitimacy.
Next, we notice the legislature's failure to pass the bills the Executive Yuan had been gunning for, which shouldn't be surprising. To be fair the legislature did speed through review of a record number of bills, and I'm glad they're not just rubberstamping every Executive request, but at the same time these guys are only doing half day committee meetings most of the time, so if they had worked full time they could have done more.
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Of more concern is the attitude of some such as Chen Chao Jian of Ming Chuan University, who was quoted by the TT"
“Apparently, the KMT caucus did not make every effort to support the Presidential Office and Executive Yuan,” Chen said. “It should be a piece of cake for the KMT caucus to pass as many bills as the Executive Yuan wants.”
Excuse me? So the Legislative Yuan should be a rubber stamp after all? That's news to me.
This should be a news item from an efficiency standpoint only. The fact that Ma wants to bring the legislature in line and some "experts" seem to approve this is still very distressing.
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