Tue, Jan 23, 2007 page3

• KMT to refer lawmakers to disciplinary body

  • By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTERS
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  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday it would refer five Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers who secured legislative chamber doors to keep the speaker off the floor last Friday to the disciplinary committee for punishment.

  "It's unforgivable that the DPP locked the chamber's doors, which infuriated the speaker," KMT Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) told a press conference.

  DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) called a press conference on Sunday admitting that he and his colleagues brought in the locks and secured the doors on Friday night.

  The move was part of the DPP's boycott to stop a vote on the bill the KMT designed to select members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) in accordance with parties' electoral strength.

  CEC members are now nominated by the premier and appointed by the president.

  The DPP boycott resulted in a melee in which several lawmakers, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), were slightly injured.

  Friday's legislative session ground to a halt as a result of the boycott, leaving 75 bills -- including a budget bill -- for the current fiscal year stalled.

  Tsai Chi-fang and DPP lawmakers Wang Sing-nan (王幸男), Kuo Jung-chung (郭榮宗) and Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠) were spotted locking the doors.

  "The five lawmakers will be referred to the disciplinary committee," Tsai Chin-lung said.

  Meanwhile, speculation emerged in the wake of the chaos that KMT secretary-general Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) took a hard-line approach on the bill because KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wanted to embarrass the legislative speaker by means of the melee.

  Wu said on Sunday that Wang Jin-pyng should have ordered the police to maintain order during Friday's legislative session and get the CEC bill passed.

  "I would have called the police if I were the speaker," Wu said.

  Wang Jin-pyng, on the other hand, on Sunday blamed KMT lawmakers for not helping him tackle the DPP boycott.

  "I asked some KMT lawmakers to walk with me to the dais when I was about to resume the session at 7pm, but they only stood on the floor," Wang Jin-pyng said.

  Wang Jin-pyng said that the legislature's rules mean that the speaker is not able to maintain order on the floor.

  Ma and Wang Jin-pyng both played down the alleged discord over the matter yesterday.

  Ma said that the legislative speaker had the power to decide whether to ask the police to intervene or not.

  "I never asked the speaker to do that," Ma said.

  Wang Jin-pyng said he didn't think there was any conspiracy against him regarding the matter and that KMT lawmakers' had no obligation to help him handle proceedings.

  DPP caucus whip Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津) said she did not think the DPP legislators who paralyzed last Friday's legislative session should be sent to the legislature's disciplinary committee for punishment.

  "We did not see people fighting [in the session]. What we saw was legislators trying to prevent Speaker Wang from holding the session because he had been `held hostage' by the pan-blue camp to call a vote [on the amendment to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法)] before any discussions [of the bill] was held," Yeh told a press conference.

  "They [the KMT] once again tried to take an unconstitutional move [to call for a vote on the bill without discussing it first] and therefore we had to use any means to prevent this from happening," she said.
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