Newly elected legislators reported to the Legislative Yuan on Feb. 1 and held their first official meeting on Tuesday, but its disoriented state has highlighted new legislators’ inexperience.
The legislative election last month resulted in none of the major political parties holding more than half of the total 113 seats — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won 52, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won 51, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) won eight, and two independent seats are held by KMT-friendly legislators. This means that negotiations between parties would be crucial to passing legislation.
With KMT legislator-at-large Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) becoming the new legislative speaker, 54 of the 113 seats are also taken by newcomers, with 34 from the KMT, leading to an unpredictable future for the legislature. Despite this, many political observers held a positive outlook, saying that new voices could bring a fresh atmosphere to the legislature.
However, the run-up to Tuesday’s meeting suggests that the KMT and TPP caucuses are unfamiliar with the Legislative Yuan’s procedural rules. KMT caucus convener Fu Kun-chi on Feb. 7 issued a press release petitioning for an extraordinary meeting for Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to report on Feb. 17 regarding cimbuterol found in pork in Taichung — despite political parties’ agreement on Feb. 5 to have the first meeting on Tuesday.
Citing the Constitution on the holding of biannual legislative sessions between February and May and between September and December, and extraordinary sessions being called at other times, the DPP caucus questioned why the KMT would call an extraordinary session during an official session period.
The KMT caucus on Feb. 15 urged Han to hold consultations the next day regarding Chen. Han’s office refused, saying that consultations would be held a day prior to the previously agreed opening meeting. Recognizing his ignorance of the law and legislative procedure, Fu on Feb. 17 appeared to shift the blame by saying that the press release was a “typographical error” made by a party worker, who would be punished.
Confusion continued on Monday last week as the TPP caucus rejected the KMT’s proposal to have Chen’s food safety report a day later, but sent an urgent notice later the same day to the DPP and KMT caucuses asking them to attend negotiations in less than an hour. Negotiations failed as the notice was too short.
The KMT caucus’ legislators also proposed a change to the meeting agenda early on Tuesday, asking Chen to make a food safety report before his general policy address, but withdrew the proposal two hours later, saying that it supported the TPP’s proposal.
The first meeting on Tuesday opened in a chaos, as the KMT staged a boycott of Chen’s general policy address by swarming the podium. Pushing and yelling occurred when a new DPP legislator tried to snatch new KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang’s (羅智強) microphone.
Responding to the turmoil, Han called for a 10-minute break and urged lawmakers to “consider policies rationally” and “maintain order in the chamber” before resuming the session. The food safety report on Friday was also disrupted by Han a few times, asking for “mutual respect among legislators and government officials” to share the 15-minute Q&A time, as a few new KMT legislators refused to let Chen speak.
It is understandable that new legislators would want to prove their worth and raise their profile, but as lawmakers, legislators should first familiarize themselves with the Constitution, laws and legislative procedures.
The new legislative caucuses and legislators must also put their political stunts aside and step up their game. They should focus on more pressing issues or important bills concerning the public, such as monitoring the widespread tainted chili powder instead of the seemingly isolated case of tainted pork, rather than getting caught up in trivial political debates on basic procedural rules and letting voters’ expectations down.
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