When the foreign press describes Taiwan’s democracy as “boisterous,” it almost always follows another brawling incident in the legislature. No doubt we will be seeing this word frequently.
On Friday, throughout the day struggles and brawls broke out. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislative caucuses camped out the night before to ensure their members could successfully fortify the podium to ensure proceedings could go forward, but as expected, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus made multiple forays to attempt to seize the podium to disrupt any further legislative activity.
Unfortunately, the multiple melees led to some injuries, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and DPP Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) had severe ribcage contusions, while among other DPP legislators, Puma Shen (沈伯洋) had a minor concussion, Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) had chest pains and a lame foot, Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) was severely concussed, Kuo Kuo-wen’s (郭國文) tailbone was fractured, Hsu Chih-chieh’s (許智傑) left hand was dislocated and his leg had multiple injuries, and Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) also had severe contusions. Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲) of the KMT was injured as well.
Photo: Lin Je-yuan, Taipei Times
At one point Chung got over the podium table and grabbed and then dragged down KMT lawmaker Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), to whom Chung later apologized and said he accidentally stepped on paper and slipped. Puma Shen at one point did a good impression of crowd surfing, but took a nasty fall and suffered a concussion.
At points the proceeding became downright farcical. DPP lawmaker Kuo Kuo-wen grabbed documents, which some reports suggested were the bills the proceedings were about but others simply stated were “documents,” and ran out of the room clutching them like a rugby player.
KMT Legislator Jessica Chen (陳玉珍) from Kinmen, sporting a military-style helmet, proudly boasted she as one person was able to block ten people, leading to some in the press to dub her the “Kinmen tank.” KMT lawmaker Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), never one to shy away from controversy, thought this would be a good occasion to play the national anthem on a flute, and at another point was accused by DPP lawmaker Wang Hui-mei (王美惠) of trying to strangle her with a DPP flag that somehow Hsu had managed to get her hands on during the fray.
That evening hundreds of DPP supporters came out in protest, a number that has grown to the tens of thousands early this week. In typical hyperventilating fashion, the DPP accused the KMT of “atrocities” and the KMT accused the DPP of being “irrational.”
WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT
What is all this drama about? Ostensibly, this is about proposals to include amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) to normalize presidential state of the nation addresses to the legislature, boost legislative powers of oversight and investigation, create criminal penalties for holding the legislature in contempt, and empower the legislature to approve the appointment of officials and conduct legislative speaker elections with open ballots.
For the DPP and the protesters this is also about procedural issues, and they accuse the KMT and TPP of using their combined legislative majority to ram the process through without line-by-line Judicial and Organic Laws and Statues Committee review of the proposals, and they accuse the two parties of failing to provide additional proposals online for lawmakers and the public to review. The KMT stated that printed versions of the additions were provided on the desks of the lawmakers to review on-site.
The DPP’s watered-down version of legislative reforms have been blocked in a manner that when the DPP held a legislative majority they did not do, further adding to their frustrations. Protesters accused the KMT and TPP of conducting “black box” tactics by conducting all of this in an untransparent and undemocratic manner.
Fundamentally, this is a power struggle between the legislative and executive branches. Combined, the KMT and TPP now possess a legislative majority after eight years of the DPP having control over both branches of government, and they are seeking greater powers over the DPP-held executive branch.
Some of the reforms are supported by the DPP. There is a little controversy over the proposed presidential state of the nation address about whether the president should be questioned by the lawmakers after the address or not.
President William Lai (賴清德) has indicated he is open to delivering such an address, and KMT party chair Eric Chu (朱立倫) has stated that the president would be accorded “respect” during questioning. The DPP is concerned that adding a questioning requirement would turn the entire affair into a political circus disrespectful of the office of the president, and they are likely right that Chu probably could not induce the KMT’s lively caucus to show that respect.
THE MAIN CONTROVERSY
The main controversy is over the boosting of legislative powers of oversight and investigation and creating criminal penalties for holding the legislature in contempt, similar to the powers the US Congress has to hold investigations and hold people in contempt of Congress. Those who refuse, procrastinate, conceal or provide false statements to the Legislature’s demand for an investigation, questioning, and access to documents would be fined or dealt with by prosecutors, according to the KMT lawmakers’ bill.
The amendments would allow for fines of between NT$20,000 and NT$200,000, and those under questioning would not be allowed to speak back to lawmakers. People in both government and in the private sector could be subjected to legislative investigations.
The KMT and TPP hold that this would increase oversight and accountability in government. After eight years of DPP legislative and executive power, the two parties are keen to be able to hold some leverage over the executive branch.
During the last eight years there have been some cases of potential government mismanagement and even potential alleged corruption they would like to examine. These include the opaque method that vaccines were procured during the pandemic, and the clearly botched and mishandled procurement of eggs by the government in 2023 to bring prices under control. The KMT also has a point in calling the DPP “hypocritical,” noting that the DPP when they were in opposition to KMT-led executives were for this kind of oversight, but now that the shoe is on the other foot now do not.
The DPP, protesters and activists counter that this could potentially lead to secrets, including those pertaining to national security, being made public. They point to the cases of KMT lawmakers Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) leaking secrets related to the indigenous submarine program and Hsu Chiao-hsin recently publicly revealing the details of diplomatic agreements with eastern European countries regarding aid to Ukraine and requirements that some of it be procured from Taiwan sources.
The DPP is also concerned that these investigations could turn into political show trials that could make governing all but impossible. They are also concerned that more pro-China elements in the KMT could use these powers to not only force the government to leak sensitive information, but to slow down or halt attempts by the government to protect Taiwan sovereignty and security.
PROBABLY GOING NOWHERE
Ultimately, it is not likely that these investigative and contempt of legislature powers will survive a challenge in the Constitutional Court. These powers infringe on the powers accorded to the Control Yuan, which is tasked with investigating the government, and the Judicial Yuan’s powers to handle criminal issues. The Constitutional Court is under the Judicial Yuan, and they are likely to take a dim view of the Legislative Yuan usurping their authority.
Regardless, in the meantime there will continue to be much drama in the legislature and out in the streets.
Donovan’s Deep Dives is a regular column by Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) who writes in-depth analysis on everything about Taiwan’s political scene and geopolitics. Donovan is also the central Taiwan correspondent at ICRT FM100 Radio News, co-publisher of Compass Magazine, co-founder Taiwan Report (report.tw) and former chair of the Taichung American Chamber of Commerce. Follow him on X: @donovan_smith.
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