Less than a week after the arrogance of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators was exposed for all to see as they put partisanship and self-interest above the well-being of the nation by blocking sunshine bills and busting a deal with the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, the public on Wednesday was again offered a shocking example of how a political party's comfortable control of a two-thirds majority in the Legislative Yuan is slowly boosting the self-importance of its lawmakers.
Accusing the state-run First Commercial Bank of waiving the lease on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (
The lawmakers ignored a security guard's query and went straight to the campaign office on the 13th floor, sparking verbal and physical clashes with DPP supporters.
Although police were called in to maintain order and did remove the lawmakers for trespassing on private property, they nevertheless did not apprehend them according to Article 306 of the Criminal Code (
In contrast, DPP supporters, who were trying to prevent the lawmakers from fleeing the "crime scene," were manhandled by the police.
Granted, lawmakers have a right to conduct inspections in accordance with the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (
The presidential election is less than 10 days away. What were these four lawmakers thinking? With feelings running high in both camps, even a fool should know better than to step on opposition territory with such aggression.
Aware of the potential damage from the incident, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Meanwhile, on the day of the incident, there were allegations in a magazine that KMT Legislator Diane Lee (
Lawmakers are elected to work for the common good of the people. It seems that certain lawmakers more often than not are troublemakers themselves, however, and have a hard time abiding by the laws they themselves brought into being.
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