Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday boycotted an administrative report by Premier William Lai (賴清德) and paralyzed legislative proceedings on the first day of the new legislative session.
At about 8am — one hour before a Legislative Yuan plenary — KMT lawmakers occupied the rostrum and blocked the entrance to the legislative chamber, where Lai was to deliver his report.
KMT caucus members originally planned to bar Lai from entering the legislature compound, but the premier arrived 15 minutes before they did, KMT caucus secretary-general William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The legislators accused Lai of apathy toward an incident earlier this month, when a Japanese representative of the Alliance for Truth About Comfort Women was seen in a video allegedly kicking a statue of a “comfort woman” next to the KMT’s Tainan chapter.
The statue commemorates Taiwanese victims of sexual exploitation by the Imperial Japanese army during World War II.
The lawmakers also demanded that Lai apologize for the behavior of former Transitional Justice Commission deputy chairman Chang Tien-chin (張天欽), who last month allegedly said that he wanted to use a lustration law being drafted by the commission against New Taipei City mayoral candidate and former deputy mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the KMT to turn public opinion against Hou.
Chang resigned on Wednesday last week, after the Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine published a partial transcript of a recording of an informal commission meeting held by Chang on Aug. 24.
According to the transcript, Chang said it would be a pity not to manipulate public opinion against Hou, whom Chang called the “most despicable case in transitional justice.”
The lawmakers would not let Lai enter the chamber.
They performed a voodoo-style skit, scattering effigies representing “Chang Tien-chins” in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration and sweeping them away with a broom
DPP and KMT caucus officials in a separate room discussed how to break the stalemate, but their efforts proved futile.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said it was regrettable that the KMT caucus blocked the rostrum, as Lai had said he was willing to apologize for the justice commission debacle.
The negotiations broke down because the KMT’s caucus leadership was divided over how to handle the legislative session, Ker said.
The KMT is unlikely to boycott Lai’s report on the government’s response to floods on Tuesday next week, but if KMT lawmakers fail to agree on how to approach future meetings, the stalemate could continue, he said.
The KMT caucus resorts to the same obstruction tactics at the start of every legislative session, obscuring their causes, DPP caucus director-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
Tseng denied that the KMT caucus was divided over how to go into future meetings.
The lawmakers’ demands are clear, he said: Lai must apologize; the government must investigate whether there are more “Chang Tien-chins”; and the commission must cease operations.
Lai left the legislature at noon, declining to respond to media queries.
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) ended the meeting at 2pm, saying further discussions on the agenda were needed.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS