Premier Yu Shyi-kun was finally moved to anger on Tuesday, stunning the legislature and the nation by leading a Cabinet walkout from the legislature to protest verbal abuse directed at his ministers and himself. Faced with a deteriorating legislature and inter-party struggle, Yu decided to take off the silk gloves.
Yu was angered by the actions of People First Party (PFP) legislators Cheng Chin-ling (
He did not, however, leave the building but only moved to a rest area outside the legislative chamber. He also said he would return as soon as the legislative speaker gave him due fairness. Unfortunately, the ruling and opposition parties' caucuses have not reached a consensus on resolving this dispute, so it is still unknown whether Yu will return to the legislature tomorrow.
Commentators compared this incident to former premier Hau Pei-tsun's (
President Chen Shui-bian (
The political situation was tense during Hau's premiership in the early 1990s. Then-president Lee Teng-hui's (
So comparing Yu's and Hau's walkouts is like comparing courage to showmanship. It is disrespectful of the opposition and the constitutional significance of the incidents different. It is also like comparing dissidents accusing the Chinese Communist Party of destroying China to those calling the DPP names in front of the Presidential Office building. The former is an act of bravery given the political climate and democratic situation in China, while the latter is an absolute absurdity. The former risks prison, while the latter is not only free from legal punishment, but also gets media attention.
Since the abolition of the National Assembly and the subsequent expansion of the Legislative Yuan, the legislature has turned into an uncontrollable constitutional beast. The moral character of legislators has become the stuff of gossip magazines, and legislators' heralding of dubious political achievements and the vicious intra-party struggle is nauseating. Calls for halving the number of seats are rising. Looking at the outrageous behavior of legislators and the almost daily personal attacks on government officials or other lawmakers, it is hard not to support halving the legislature to eliminate sub-standard legislators and increase legislative efficiency and quality.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
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