Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday called on all parties to work together to abolish the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan.
Ker made the remarks following a vote at the Legislative Yuan to confirm the Presidential Office’s nominees for the Control Yuan amid opposition from other parties.
Saying the opposition used violent tactics and created conflict to disrupt the legislative proceeding in the past few days, Ker said it was unfortunate that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers chose not to exercise their right to review and discuss the nominations, but resorted to violent scuffles to interfere in the confirmation process.
Ker compared KMT lawmakers to the Boxer Rebellion in China — an armed uprising at the end of the 19th century by Chinese secret societies and religious zealots to drive out foreigners and repel rising Western influence in China — alluding to their use of violence in a futile attempt to resist progress and modernization.
KMT lawmakers destroyed ballot boxes, damaged the rostrum and other property inside the legislative chamber to try to stop DPP legislators from voting, Ker said, adding that these actions have breached legislative regulations and rules of conduct.
“During the confirmation vote, KMT members registered to take 25 ballots, but only cast two invalid votes,” Ker said.
Whatever the result was, by registering for 25 ballots, it meant that the KMT agreed to the legitimacy of the vote and has no cause to charge that the procedure was unconstitutional, he said.
“Now that the process is done with, I hope cooler heads can prevail and we can all stop quarreling. All parties should talk and collaborate to work out ways to abolish the two government branches, as we also hope these new appointments would be the final term for members of the two branches,” he added.
Separately, DPP spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) yesterday said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is also the DPP chairperson, “would like to express sincere gratitude to the many DPP legislators who worked tirelessly and were deprived of sleep to undertake their constitutional duty, some of whom were attacked in the legislature.”
“KMT members should participate in the process by following legislative rules, and should not have resorted to violence and assaulted fellow legislators... The KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party deliberately subverted the process to prevent a proper confirmation and vote, while at the same time demanding procedural justice. It was faulty logic and very irresponsible action on their part,” she added.
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