A fistfight broke out between pan-blue and pan-green lawmakers yesterday during an argument over a meeting about a secret fund of the National Security Bureau (NSB), which was scheduled for the same day as a meeting of the legislature's defense committee.
Five lawmakers were involved in the fight. They included four members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and one People First Party (PFP) Legislator. The DPP belongs to the pan-green camp and the PFP to the pan-blue camp.
PHOTO: CNA
It was the first clash of such magnitude at a meeting of the defense committee. Minor scuffles have occurred in the past.
Yesterday's fracas resulted from a difference of opinion over holding a meeting about a secret NSB fund that existed during the term of former president Lee Teng-hui (
Lawmakers of the pan-green camp argued that the meeting could not be held yesterday, because it is against the legislature's rules to hold a committee meeting on the same day as a general meeting of the legislature.
The defense committee had arranged to hold a meeting yesterday on the insistence of pan-blue lawmakers, despite the legislature's general meeting, which had also been slated for yesterday. The defense committee originally did not have any meeting scheduled for yesterday, but its schedule had been changed on Monday by the blue camp. This prompted lawmakers of the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to lodge a protest prior to the opening of yesterday's meeting of the defense committee.
Pan-blue lawmakers, mainly from the PFP, reacted strongly to the protest. They insisted that the general meeting should take preference, since the matters under discussion should have been completed on Tuesday, but the pan-green camp had deliberately postponed the meeting until yesterday.
PFP lawmaker Chung Shao-ho (
Three other DPP lawmakers, including Kuo Wen-chen (
The fight did not change anything, however. The meeting on the NSB's secret funds took place as scheduled.
All the lawmakers involved in the fight had left the building by then, with some going to hospitals to treat their wounds and others back to their offices to arrange press conferences about what happened.
Lee might actually be the key to the conflict between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, since the pan-blue camp is demanding that the NSB explain Lee's suspected connection with the secret fund.
The NSB did not give any hint at the meeting that Lee might have used the secret fund for his personal interests or any illegal activities.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS