Chaos reigned yesterday in the Taipei City Council as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors demanded that Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) retract a municipal report he had filed and asked Ma to explain why he had likened the country to a police state in the report.
DPP city councilors were upset about a municipal report that Ma had begun to deliver and accused him of using rhetoric in the report more appropriate for the national campaign manager of the pan-blue camp than for the mayor of Taipei.
They also asked why Ma's handling of violent pan-blue rallies in Taipei had not been discussed in the report.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP city councilors demanded that Ma retract the report and explain the words he had chosen to use before the session started. Otherwise, they said, DPP city councilors would stage a walkout.
The first page of Ma's report said, "In 2004, the specter of a police state is haunting the street corners of Taipei City. Two bullets have hurt not only the president's stomach but also the people's consensus. The bullets hurt not only the vice president's knee but have also damaged the unity of society."
DPP caucus leader Chou Po-ya (
"On the contrary, Ma criticized [what he called] the central government's attempts to interfere with the local government's right to disperse the crowds," Chou said.
"Ma should not have allowed his subjective opinions and political stance to permeate the report," Chou said.
"It was completely inappropriate for Ma to liken the country to a police state -- an anachronism -- and shows a lack of reflection."
Council speaker Wu Bi-chu (吳碧珠) did not approve of Chou's statements and asked that Ma begin to deliver his report.
At that time, DPP councilors moved toward the front of the hall, formed a line and asked Ma to retract his report. City councilors from the pan-blue camp then moved to the front of the hall too and attempted to stop the DPP councilors.
Amid a fracas, two female DPP councilors tore up copies of Ma's report.
At that point the DPP city councilors walked out of the session and Ma finished reading his report to the pan-blue city councilors.
Ma said that the content of the report was appropriate to his responsibilities as mayor, and said that there was no need to revise the report because he had simply described facts.
Ma said he had used the term "police state" because the National Police Administration's dispersal of students who were staging a sit-in had violated the Constitution and because the central government had interfered in the local government's responsibilities.
"I just wanted to remind our police to be more careful when doing their duty," Ma said.
"I urged the central government to react to the protesters' appeals. Otherwise, I could not say afterward that I could effectively deal with rallies," he said.
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