Parliamentary Pandemonium and Public Protests

After Taiwan's election in January, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party or DPP won the presidential vote, but failed to secure a majority in Taiwan’s Legislature or Parliament ending up with 51 seats. The main opposition party - the KMT won 52 seats and the smaller TPP who they have begun to partner with, won 8 seats. In addition there were 2 independent seats which aligned with the KMT - all in all giving the KMT the majority and enabling them to secure the position of Speaker of the house. We discussed the makeup of the new parliament and what it means in our Inauguration Preview Podcast with Brian Hioe of New Bloom Magazine if you want to check that out. The KMT and the TPP are using their majority control of the parliament to push new legislation through. On the Friday before the inauguration, their zeal to succeed resulted in formal parliamentary process being thrown to the wayside as the KMT-TPP alliance attempted to ram through four bills, including legislation that would add a contempt of parliament offense to the criminal code and strengthen the legislature's investigative powers. Also included were a number of east coast infrastructure projects which many worry could facilitate a Belt and Road style engagement with China. However, the Friday attempt was thwarted after strong objections by the DPP triggered a brawl between elected representatives inside the chamber, ending with at least three officials being sent to the hospital. All of this caught the attention of the public as parliamentary proceedings are broadcast live on television and an estimated 1000 or so democracy protesters quickly gathered on the street outside the parliament to show their disapproval. The parliament resumed on Tuesday with the KMT and TPP re-energized in their quest to push this legislation through. However, the Taiwanese public were also re-energized and they showed up in their thousands throughout the day outside the parliament with the crowd swelling to well over 10,000 by the evening time. We spoke to a cross section of the people protesting on the streets around the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday May 21st to get their reaction to these latest events happening in Taiwan's parliament.