Chaos erupted in Taiwan’s Parliament on Friday following a bitter dispute over a controversial reform bill. Amid the chaos, Guo Guowen, a member of Parliament, quickly snatched the bill’s documents and made a dramatic dash to stop it from being passed, an online video showed.
????????? LMAO: A Taiwanese member of parliament stole a bill “with the speed of an American football player” to stop it from passing.
-> This should just be an official process in any democracy. I loved it… haha pic.twitter.com/0C4T4DbbSU
– Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) May 17, 2024
The incident occurred just days before President-elect Lai Ching-te was sworn into office on Monday, having won January elections even though his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) does not have a majority in the legislature, according to Reuters.
The Kuomintang (KMT), the main opposition party, has more seats than the DPP, but not enough to control parliament alone. Thus, they are uniting with the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to defend their common goals. The opposition wants to give parliament more power to control government actions, including a controversial plan to punish officials in parliament.
Even before the vote was cast, some lawmakers shouted and pushed each other out of the legislative chamber. Later, the parliament floor witnessed chaos as lawmakers turned to the speaker’s seat, jumped onto tables and trapped their colleagues in the floor. More fights followed in the afternoon.
A lawmaker was hospitalized after falling from a platform and injuring his head, reported Khaleej Times.
The DPP accused the KMT and TPP of trying to pass proposals without proper consultation, calling them “an unconstitutional abuse of power.” DPP lawmaker Wang Mei-hui, representing the southern city of Chiayi, stated: “Why are we opposed? We want to be able to have discussions, not that there is only one voice in the country,” Reuters reported.
Jessica Chen of the KMT, which represents the Taiwan-administered Kinmen Islands near China, argued that the reforms were aimed at improving the legislature’s oversight of the executive branch and said the DPP does not want the bill to pass “because they are used to having all the power.”
In 2020, KMT lawmakers scattered pig intestines on the chamber floor during a disagreement over US pork imports.
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
