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Legislators at odds over confrontation that hurt minister

Pan-blue and pan-green legislators have initiated separate proposals in the legislature to probe a confrontation last Friday that left Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) hospitalized, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday.

Wang told reporters that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus had proposed referring the case to the legislature’s Discipline Committee, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus wanted to establish a task force to investigate the incident.

“This is a positive development,” Wang said. “We will handle each caucus’ proposal in accordance with legislative procedures.”

The KMT and DPP caucuses blamed each other for the scuffle, which erupted as Yeh was leaving the legislature after a meeting with bakery owners and lawmakers over the government’s response to the health scare over melamine-contaminated food from China.

The KMT caucus accused DPP caucus whip Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) and Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清) of grabbing the minister by the neck and choking him. But Pan accused KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih’s (林益世) wife Peng Ai-chia (彭愛佳), a television reporter, of trying to mislead the public into thinking that DPP legislators had resorted to violence.

Yeh was later admitted to National Taiwan University Hospital with high blood pressure, while Cabinet Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) called the DPP “a violent party.”

The tension escalated as the Cabinet boycotted all events held by the DPP caucus, while the DPP caucus said it would attempt to make Hsueh persona non grata in the legislature.

Wang said yesterday the scuffle was the first time in a decade that a Cabinet official had been chased and hurt at the legislature.
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