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Jul 21, 2008

Two things that caught my eye today:

This from Taiwan News, which I'm reprinting here:

A nonprofit foundation yesterday selected Taiwan's 10 "best" and "worst" legislators based on their performances over the past three months.

The Congress Observation Foundation compiled its lists based primarily on lawmakers' "active participation rates" at legislative committee meetings between March 3 and June 24.

Among the 10 "best" were DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying and KMT legislators Chiang Yi-hsiung, Lin Cheng-er, Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), with active participation rates ranging from 35.48 percent to 97.67 percent, according to COF Executive Director Yao Li-ming.

The 10 "worst" included singer-turned-legislator Yu Tian and Chai Trong-rong of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party as well as Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and Lin Yi-shih (林益世) from the ruling Kuomintang.

They have had active participation rates ranging from zero to 20.93 percent.

The "active participation rate" used by the foundation is based on how often lawmakers both appeared and spoke in meetings held by their respective committees.

A lawmaker who attended every meeting but never voiced an opinion would still be scored a zero.

The foundation also used more general measures over legislators' performances in legislative committees and in their respective constituencies to gauge their effectiveness, Yao noted.

He insisted the criteria chosen by the foundation "can pass public scrutiny."

And this:

Plans To Take Chiang Kai Shek Off 10NT Coin

The Central Bank here says there's no plan to take the image of late ROC
President Chiang Kai-shek off the 10NT coin.

The Bank has been considering a plan to put the portrait of Zhang Wei-shui,
a prominent Taiwanese dissident during Japanese colonial rule, and a recent
local Chinese-language news report said it would move forward soon.

Central Bank governor Peng Huai-nan said that nothing's been decided
regarding whether to move forward with the new coin, adding even if minted
the current coin bearing the late president's portrait will not be taken
out of circulation.

Peng said before the new coin could be minted opinions would be solicited
from all sectors of society.

He also explained that any decision to mint a new coin would need approval
from the Executive Yuan.

According to the news report ... Bank officials were divided over whether to
go ahead with the new coin ... but agreed to go ahead because high-level
sources within President Ma Ying-jeou's administration were said to have
wanted it minted.

1 comment:

Michael Turton said...

Good news! Let's put Peng Ming-min on the $50!