Reuters:
TAIPEI, May 21 – Lawmakers in Taiwan jostled, unfurled banners and shouted at each other on Tuesday in a dispute about efforts to widen parliament oversight pushed by the opposition, despite the anger of the ruling party, which says there has been no consultation.
The squabble comes as Lai Ching-te took office on Monday as the new president, facing not only an angry China, which views him as a “separatist”, but also a fractured parliament, after his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority.
Several hundred people gathered outside parliament to protest against the reforms, and accused the opposition of working in concert with China and trying to kill democracy.
The two main opposition parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which together have enough seats for a majority, have joined hands to back reforms that give parliament greater scrutiny over the government.
That includes a controversial proposal for lawmakers to punish officials deemed to commit contempt of parliament by making false statements or “withholding information”, which the DPP says lacks a clear definition.
While there was no repeat of Friday’s scenes of legislators punching and wrestling each other in the chamber, DPP lawmakers wearing headbands reading “Democracy has died” demanded more discussions on the proposals and vented their anger at the KMT.
