Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. Yesterday should have been an good day for Taiwan, as the legislators elected in the Dec. 1 elections took their seats in the Fifth Legislative Yuan. Unfortunately, the election for the legislature's vice speaker created a major uproar, with lawmakers pushing, shoving and shouting to be heard. There were also widespread rumors of political parties buying votes. It looked like a return to the bad old days, when Taiwan's legislature became famous around the world for its melees.
It was hardly an inspiring start for freshmen legislators, who occupy about half of the seats in the new legislature. They were given a crash course in legislative bullying and rule-breaking. Instead of the legally-mandated secret vote, legislators had to follow their parties' request to flash their ballots to other lawmakers.
However, the most unacceptable aspect of the day was that the opposition parties chose to thumb their noses at the government by running their own candidate in the vice-speaker election -- dashing hopes that a new legislative session might focus on badly-needed legislation, rather than political power plays.
Even though the DPP is now the biggest party in the legislature, with 87 seats, it had endorsed the re-election of the KMT's Wang Jin-pyng (
The DPP had hoped that its goodwill gesture will encourage other parties to back its candidate for the vice speaker's post, Hong Chi-chang (
From the way Soong took Chiang with him to campaign for votes this week, it was clear the PFP leader was using Chiang to provoke hatred between the KMT and DPP. If Soong succeeds, localized KMT lawmakers may be kept from working with the pan-green camp through match-making by the Taiwan Solidarity Union in the 2004 presidential election. Another option is that localized KMT lawmakers may join forces to stand up against Beijing's favorite puppet -- the PFP -- so that Soong would not have a good chance at the presidency. The PFP could then wave the pan-blue banner in order to take over the KMT and suck dry the party's flesh. The PFP really knows how to kill many birds with one stone.
Who Soong thinks he is fooling -- besides Lien -- is anyone's guess. Such low-down tactics may have succeeded in hoodwinking Lien, but they can't deceive the general public. Soong has shown his true character once again.
Perhaps Lien thought he would be able to salvage some of the face he lost in the December elections by having the KMT control both the speaker and vice speaker posts. However, the KMT has forgotten that the DPP's goodwill gesture in handing over the speaker seat was appreciated by a majority of the people. The KMT may have won the battle in the Legislative Yuan yesterday, but it has lost the heart of most people in Taiwan.
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