A KMT legislator yesterday said the party's intention to punish members over the recent Legislature Yuan's showdown over the Council of Grand Justices' nominees was tantamount to "forsaking KMT colleagues for the sake of winning favor from PFP Chairman James Soong (
"If KMT headquarters is to take disciplinary action over the [grand justice] furor, then all I have to say is that these KMT decision-making officials are simply betraying party members in order to kiss up to Soong," Legislator Chen Hung-chang (陳宏昌) said.
Chen was speaking in response to the KMT legislative caucus's intention to turn him over, along with two colleagues, to the party's Evaluation and Discipline Committee for punishment.
Chen disobeyed a caucus order to vote with his party Friday for a postponement on the confirmation date of President Chen Shui-bian's (
The two other KMT lawmakers were Lee Sen-zong (
KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday said that the party's legislative caucus is expected to submit a list of renegade politicians to the KMT's Evaluation and Discipline Committee, which would then convene a meeting to investigate the lawmakers' conduct.
"These legislators are subject to party disciplinary action, though the severity of the punishment will remain unknown until the committee convenes its meeting," Tsai said, adding that the committee meeting is likely to take place following the legislative session.
Chen argued that "it is unreasonable" for party headquarters to punish him over last Friday's vote because never once did the caucus speak of possible party disciplinary action if lawmakers didn't follow its orders.
"I don't think that the issue of nominees is one that needs to be subjected to any party line," he said.
Chen said he believed Soong was working behind the scenes to delay the confirmation of the nominees.
Chen's comments about Soong echoed the DPP's accusation that Soong has been playing a leading role over KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in the KMT-PFP decision-making mechanism.
Lee said that he had no complaints and would accept all forms of party disciplinary action if the party headquarters does decide to punish him.
PFP spokesman Huang Yih-jiau (
Hwang said Yang failed to make it to last Friday's assembly because she had to visit the US to attend her children's graduation.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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