The KMT legislative caucus yesterday expressed its regret over its failure to block Yao Chia-wen (
While the KMT caucus said it would refer the rebels to the party's Evaluation and Discipline Committee and recommend the strictest punishment, it alleged that the DPP had disrupted its unity through unscrupulous means.
"Disunity was what led the KMT to defeat, but the most important factor was the DPP's money and power, which is what we despise and regret the most," said KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世).
The KMT and PFP accused the DPP of buying votes from opposition legislators for between NT$5 million and NT$10 million each. They also alleged that the DPP threatened opposition legislators with its "administrative resources."
The DPP, however, denied the allegations.
Crucial to the confirmation of Yao's appointment were the votes cast by six lawmakers in the KMT caucus: Lu Shin-ming (
There was also discord within the KMT on Thursday, when eight of its legislators were able to get to the ballot box despite the caucus' decision to boycott the nominations for grand justices and Control Yuan members.
The eight legislators included four who rejected the party line yesterday -- Chen Chin-ting, Lin Pin-kuan, Lin Chin-chun and Lu Shin-ming -- plus Tseng Hua-te (曾華德), Yang Jen-fu (楊仁福), Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) and Chen Ken-te (陳根德).
KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) announced on Thursday that the party would hand down the strictest punishment to any rebels, saying, "The unity of the legislators is much more important than their number."
However, the party may think twice before expelling its legislators. The KMT has 68 seats in the legislature and is able to control a marginal majority in the 225-seat legislature by allying with PFP, which has 46 seats.
The KMT has previously been lenient on legislators who disobeyed the party's line.
Although it threatened to punish legislators who refused to vote according to the caucus' orders in two other controversial votes during this legislative session, it has not taken any action.
Those who had previously been threated with punishment include Chen Li-hui (
Chen Chin-ting and Lin Pin-kuan are actually independents, although they participate in the KMT caucus.
Chen Kang-chin (
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching