Several hundred people gathered outside parliament to protest against the reforms, and accused the opposition of working in concert with China and trying to kill democracy.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Taiwan jostled, unfurled banners and shouted at each other on Tuesday in a dispute about efforts to widen parliament oversight pushed by the opposition, despite the anger of the ruling party, which says there has been no consultation.<\/p>\n
The squabble comes as Lai Ching-te took office on Monday as the new president, facing not only an angry China, which views him as a \u201cseparatist\u201d, but also a fractured parliament, after his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority.<\/p>\n
Several hundred people gathered outside parliament to protest against the reforms, and accused the opposition of working in concert with China and trying to kill democracy.<\/p>\n
The two main opposition parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People\u2019s Party (TPP), which together have enough seats for a majority, have joined hands to back reforms that give parliament greater scrutiny over the government.<\/p>\n
That includes a controversial proposal for lawmakers to punish officials deemed to commit contempt of parliament by making false statements or \u201cwithholding information\u201d, which the DPP says lacks a clear definition.<\/p>\n
While there was no repeat of Friday\u2019s scenes of legislators punching and wrestling each other in the chamber, DPP lawmakers wearing headbands reading<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy has died\u201d demanded more discussions on the proposals and vented their anger at the KMT.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the speaker\u2019s platform today is not the KMT or the TPP. It\u2019s Xi Jinping,\u201d DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming told the chamber, referring to China\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
His remarks prompted shouts of \u201cShut up!\u201d from the opposition camp, some of whom brandished signs reading, \u201cReforming parliament, let sunshine in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The KMT accused the DPP of trying to \u201cspread rumours and paint them red\u201d, the colours of China\u2019s ruling Communist Party, in a bid to stifle the reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe DPP is stirring up populism, and their anti-reform actions don\u2019t have a leg to stand on,\u201d said KMT spokesperson Yang Chih-yu.<\/p>\n
Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind, the winner of this year\u2019s RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race, appeared briefly at the protest rally to offer support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect parliament, but I hope parliament can do things that we respect and respect our democratic procedures,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a Taiwanese citizen, I think we must stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current reform proposals \u201coverly expand\u201d the power of the lawmakers, Chang Hung-lin, the head of Citizen Congress Watch, a non-government group advocating for citizen supervision of parliament, told Reuters, although the group backs an existing effort to give parliament more government oversight.<\/p>\n
The current proposals, some of which passed a second reading on Tuesday, give lawmakers the right to demand parties such as defence officials and private companies testify in parliament without proper checks and balances, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is harmful to our administrative power and the judiciary,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several hundred people gathered outside parliament to protest against the reforms, and accused the opposition of working in concert with China and trying to kill democracy. Lawmakers in Taiwan jostled, unfurled banners and shouted at each other on Tuesday in a dispute about efforts to widen parliament oversight pushed by the opposition, despite the anger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Protests as Taiwan parliament pushes contentious reforms - Shree Post","description":"Several hundred people gathered outside parliament to protest against the reforms, and accused the opposition of working in concert with China and trying to kil"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1547,1266,7454,7455,7457,7458,6206,202,7453,7452,7456],"class_list":["post-4007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-democracy","tag-democratic-progressive-party","tag-kuomintang","tag-lai-ching-te","tag-legislative-oversight","tag-opposition","tag-protests","tag-reforms","tag-taiwan-parliament","tag-taiwan-peoples-party"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t