Taiwan lawmakers exchange blows in bitter dispute over Parliament reforms
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TAIPEI - Taiwanese lawmakers shoved, tackled and hit one another in Parliament on May 17 in a bitter dispute about reforms to the Chamber, just days before President-elect Lai Ching-te takes office without a legislative majority.
Even before votes started to be cast, some lawmakers screamed at and shoved one another outside the legislative Chamber, before the action moved to the floor of Parliament itself.
In chaotic scenes, lawmakers surged around the Speaker’s seat, some leaping over tables and pulling colleagues to the floor. Though calm soon returned, there were more scuffles in the afternoon.
Mr Lai, who is to be inaugurated on May 20, won January’s election, but his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority in Parliament.
The main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), has more seats than the DPP but not enough to form a majority on its own, so it has been working with the small Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to promote their mutual ideas.
The opposition wants to give Parliament greater scrutiny powers over the government, including a controversial proposal to criminalise officials who are deemed to make false statements in Parliament.
The DPP says the KMT and TPP are improperly trying to force through the proposals without the customary consultation process, in what the DPP calls “an unconstitutional abuse of power”.
“Why are we opposed? We want to be able to have discussions, not for there to be only one voice in the country,” DPP lawmaker Wang Mei-hui, who represents the southern city of Chiayi, told Reuters.
Lawmakers from all three parties were involved in the altercations, and traded accusations about who was to blame.
Taiwan lawmakers argue and exchange blows during a parliamentary session in Taipei on May 17.
PHOTO: REUTERS
KMT's Jessica Chen, from the Taiwan-administered Kinmen islands that sit next to the Chinese coast, said the reforms were to enable better legislative oversight of the executive branch.
“The DPP does not want this to be passed as they have always been used to monopolising power,” she told Reuters while wearing a military-style helmet.
Taiwan is a rambunctious democracy and fighting does, on occasion, take place in Parliament. In 2020, KMT lawmakers threw pig guts onto the Chamber’s floor in a dispute over easing US pork imports.
The clashes raise the prospect of more turmoil – and parliamentary conflict – ahead for Mr Lai’s new government after it takes office.
DPP’s Wang said: “I am worried.” REUTERS
