Autrement/ Maokong- Vote Buying

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/12/12/2003430893

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday it was wrong not to have subjected the Maokong Gondola to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study, but defended the government's decision as legally sound.

EPA Minister Steven Shen (沈世宏) said that as Taiwan had never built a gondola before, the government did not think of having the Maokong Gondola undergo an EIA.
(...)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/12/12/2003430894

Woman demands compensation for soap-laced coffee

            'ROTTEN SOUP':         The Consumers' Foundation urged the two parties to settle the case, but the customer said Starbucks' apology was insincere        
            
    DPA, TAIPEI        
    Friday, Dec 12, 2008,  Page 2

A woman yesterday sought NT$3 million (US$90,000) in damages from Taiwan's Starbucks Coffee Company after being served a cup of coffee containing detergent.

The customer, who identified herself only as Wawa, filed a complaint with the Consumers' Foundation and intends to sue the company if it refuses to pay compensation.

Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀文), a Starbucks Coffee Company executive, publicly apologized to Wawa yesterday and sought an out-of-court settlement.

                                     “We offer our apology to the customer and promise it will not happen again,” she told reporters.

“Our company has punished the staff member who left the detergent in the coffee tank and has tightened safety procedures,” she said.

A Starbucks press officer said the company was still “communicating” with the customer, hoping to reach a mutually acceptable solution.

“Our staff members took her to hospital for a checkup, made sure she was feeling OK and paid her medical expenses,” she said.

The Consumers' Foundation urged Starbucks and the customer to reach a settlement, but warned that it if were in the US, Starbucks could face a serious lawsuit because the incident involved consumer health.

The incident happened at 7:30am on Oct. 22 when Wawa went to the Starbucks outlet at Taipei Railway Station to buy a cup of coffee.

After she had taken two sips, she felt nauseous because the coffee smelled “like rotten soup,” she wrote on the Internet.

“The coffee looked like a layer of liquid and a layer of oil which had separated,” she wrote.

The coffee shop management found that an employee had put detergent into a stainless steel coffee tank the previous night to clean it, but forgot to wash the tank.

Wawa said the Starbucks outlet gave her coupons for three cups of coffee and told her that the detergent was for cleaning food containers and was harmless. But Wawa claimed she suffered from anxiety and insomnia, and Starbucks was not sincere in its apology.

Starbucks said it had sent representatives to visit Wawa at her office three times with gift packages to apologize.
       

This story has been viewed 624 times. ( Ça s'est passé dans le SB en face de la gare, côté Gong Yuan Lu.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/12/12/2003430882

Chang Sho-wen to stay away from vote in legislature

            By Flora Wang and Jimmy Chuang
    STAFF REPORTERS   
    Friday, Dec 12, 2008,  Page 1

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文), whose involvement in a vote-buying case — a civil case brought by Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — is still under court review, said yesterday he would not participate in today’s plenary session as the Legislative Yuan deals with a proposed amendment to the Election and Recall Law for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法).

Chang said he would not participate in any vote on the proposal given Yunlin District Court’s nullification of his election victory in a first trial on Nov. 28.

                                                    The verdict was not final. Chang has appealed.

Chang’s father, Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), is out on bail in a separate criminal vote-buying case brought by Yunlin County prosecutors.

The proposal by KMT Legislator Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) seeks to allow election annulment cases to go through three trials rather than two as stipulated in the law, before a court reaches a final verdict.

                                                                                                            Lin said the law is inadequate and should be amended.

The proposal has drawn criticism from the DPP as five pan-blue lawmakers — the KMT’s Chang, Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) and Lee E-tin (李乙廷) and the People First Party’s Lin Cheng-er (林正二) — have been involved in annulment cases.

The proposal has been included in today’s plenary agenda, but it may not be discussed as Chang said yesterday that the party’s Central Policy Committee had reservations about the bill.

The Taichung branch of the Taiwan High Court on Wednesday annulled Lee’s election victory in the second trial, making him the first incumbent lawmaker to lose his seat as a result of a lawsuit.

Lee yesterday maintained his innocence, saying he did not understand why the high court could annul his victory on vote-buying charges in a civil suit while finding him not guilty in a criminal suit.

Lee rebutted a court ruling that his NT$2,000 donation to a temple constituted vote-buying, saying that making religious donations was a common practice in Taiwan.

KMT caucus deputy secretary Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) voiced support for Lin’s proposal, saying that Lee’s case highlighted the flaws in the law.

                                                                                                            “This is an unjust regulation. [The DPP] should not be so sure of itself,” Lu said.

“We have already had a victim [of that regulation]. Everyone should stop and think whether the regulation is fair,” Liao said.

Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the office would respect the KMT legislative caucus’ final decision on the matter.

                                                                                                            DPP lawmakers said yesterday they would veto the proposal to amend the law.

“We will fight to the end to veto it,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) told a press conference at the DPP legislative caucus office yesterday morning.

                                                                                                            Chiu said the move would help bring back “black gold” politics.

Chiu made public the phone numbers of the Presidential Office, KMT headquarters and the KMT legislative caucus and encouraged the public to call and complain.

Echoing Chiu, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was worried that the DPP’s efforts would be unsuccessful unless the public participated in the protest.

“We only occupy 27 seats. If [the KMT] does not change its mind, we will not be able to stop it,” she said.

Central Election Commission Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) said yesterday that revising rules on election irregularity lawsuits could encourage vote-buying.

“If an election irregularity case has to be taken to the Supreme Court, it means that a legislator’s term could well end before the legal process is finished,” Chang said. “In such a case, whoever gets elected through illegal means — such as vote-buying, threatening voters or having phantom voters — would have nothing to worry about.”

                                                                                                            ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY  KO SHU-LING AND LOA LOK-SIN                                                                                     
        This story has been viewed 429 times.