Expressing dissatisfaction toward KMT Legislator's Lee Chia-chin's (李嘉進) recent misconduct against legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), fellow KMT Legislator Chen Hung-chang (陳宏昌) yesterday threatened to withdraw from the party's legislative caucus if the KMT headquarters does not discipline Lee.
"The party headquarters should recall Lee's legislative caucus position," Chen said.
"If the party headquarters does not do something about Lee, I, for one, will withdraw from the party's legislative caucus before the next legislative session," he said.
Lee is slated to assume the party's legislative caucus leader position in the next session, which will convene on Sept. 5.
A small tussle broke out between Lee and Wang last Thursday just moments before the legislature's extraordinary session concluded.
Lee, in an attempt to prevent Wang from halting the referendum bill in the legislative session, forcefully snatched an adjournment announcement from Wang.
"How could the party headquarters allow itself to sit idle while Lee is being so rude and disrespectful to Wang, who is not only the legislative speaker but also the party's vice chairman?" said Chen, who is a member of the party's E-Generation Alliance (E-
The E-Generation Alliance is generally seen as a pro-localization faction within the KMT's legislative caucus.
Chen added that several legislators shared his dissatisfaction on the matter.
Chen said that in order for Lee to take responsibility for his actions, the party's headquarters ought to strip Lee of his expected legislative caucus leader position as a punishment.
However, the KMT has tried to downplay Chen's angry remarks.
"We have no further comments on Chen's remarks because what he said was simply an emotional outburst," said KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) at a press conference called to address the furor.
Tsai added that the party headquarters had already given Lee a lecture, telling him to be more cautious in the future.
Tsai added that Tsung Yong-shui (
When asked for his comments, Lee said that he had already apologized for his conduct and one should not let the issue become an opportunity where the DPP could make use of its "sowing-discord tactic" on the pan-blue camp.
Stating that Lee had already expressed sincerity in apologizing for his wrongdoing, KMT legislative whip Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) said the subject should be dropped.
Saying that the pan-blue camp can not afford to be split in the run up to next year's presidential election, Liu added that he would try his best to patch up disagreements among his party comrades.
Liu pointed out that it has been the DPP's strategy to drive a wedge between members within the pan-blue camp and called on his party comrades not to be used by the DPP and thus disrupt the blue camp's unity.
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