KMT occupies podium, demands talks

STICKABILITY MOCKED:DPP lawmakers said that the new opposition should learn from their efforts to tie up the podium and stay for three days, not just an hour

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 30, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday occupied the legislative speaker’s

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying, front, second left, tears a placard as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators occupy the podium of Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan, second row, fourth left, during a floor vote in the legislature in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying, front, second left, tears a placard as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators occupy the podium of Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan, second row, fourth left, during a floor vote in the legislature in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

podium for the first time in history, as the opposition protested the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus’ putting a motion to vote without conducting cross-caucus negotiations.

Lawmakers argued with each other, with the legislature descending into disorder over a motion to require the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Education to retract social studies and Chinese-language high-school curriculum guidelines that were controversially announced in February 2014.

The motion — launched by DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) — asked the legislature to decide whether to retract the guidelines promulgated by the ministry in 2014, which it said came about “through a process that breached the principles of transparency, professionalism and bottom-up social participation, and with adjusted content that defied facts and whitewashed the era of authoritarian rule.”

The motion was removed from the agenda last month, pending a cross-caucus negotiation and as the one-month negotiation period ended yesterday, the motion was put to a floor discussion to be followed by a vote.     [FULL  STORY]

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