Parliamentary Maneuver Of The Week

I’ve heard about filibusters.  Filibusters, I’ve heard about.

I’ve also heard about sick legislators being wheeled into chambers to vote from ambulance gurneys.  And legislators holding the elevator to prevent rival party members from reaching the floor for critical votes.

But I ain’t never heard of anything like this:

In a melee on the floor of the nation’s highest legislative organ, a DPP lady lawmaker tried to eat a written cloture motion to put [a] bill to a vote.

[…]

Wang Shu-hui snatched the paper from her People First Party colleague Ko Shu-min, who was going to the chair to present it to Wang Jin-pyng, Legislative Yuan president, in the first free-for-all of the day.

[…]

In the hustle that followed, Wang Shu-hui popped the paper into her mouth to prevent PFP lawmakers, who rushed to help their lady colleague, from recovering it.

The Taipei Times describes how the conflict was resolved:

Wang later spat out the document and tore it up after opposition lawmakers failed to get her to cough it up by pulling her hair.

Part of me says give Ms. Wang ten out of ten for creativity, while the other part says that this is a pretty bad thing, because democracy itself depends upon a certain elementary level of civility.

The reason for the contention was that the KMT / PFP was attempting to establish direct transportation links between Taiwan and China.  Direct links aren’t possible at present because the Communist Party of China refuses to directly negotiate with the Taiwanese government, so the KMT rather obligingly tried to neuter the Taiwanese government in order to make things easier for them.  In essence, the bill in question would have removed the Taiwanese government from the regulatory picture, allowing the communists to negotiate the matter with private Taiwanese entities.

So, that’s part of it.  Ms. Wang and the DPP regarded the bill as a sell-out to the communists, and they were willing to take extreme measures in order to stop it.  But I think there’s just a bit more to it than that.  The direct links bill isn’t merely a sell-out; it’s an IRREVERSIBLE sell-out.  If the bill is passed, Taiwan will move just a little bit deeper into China’s orbit.  Will successive Taiwanese governments ever be able to repeal the bill and re-establish control over this area of policy?

Not on your life.  Think about the grief the Taiwanese government received from both China and America over the abolition of the National Unification Council.  Now remember, THAT was a defunct body with a $30 a year budget that hadn’t met in seven years.  Direct links represents something much more substantial: the movement of hundreds of thousands of people between Taiwan and China yearly.

Imagine the fallout if a successive Taiwanese government were to try to alter THAT status quo.

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UPDATE:  It’s a pity the China Post doesn’t post many pictures on its website, or I’d link to Picture #4 on the front page of the May 31st edition.  I’ll just describe it instead:

Ms. Wang’s head is pulled back by one woman from the PFP, who’s clutching a fistful of Wang’s hair.  Meanwhile, two men and one woman from the party tightly grip her arms and shoulders to restrain her.  One of the men has this big obscene grin on his face, making it seem like he enjoys holding her down just a bit too much.

Lovely.

UPDATE (June 10/06): Another clever parliamentary maneuver.  This time not from Taiwan, but Canada:

June 6 (Bloomberg ) — The Canadian government’s C$227 billion ($204 billion) budget was passed in the House of Commons after opposition lawmakers accidentally failed to stand up to debate the spending plan. (Emphasis added)

"It passed with unanimous consent,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters outside the House of Commons in Ottawa today.

The opposition allowed a federal budget bill to pass unanimously without debate?

Whoopsie-daisy.  Bet somebody’s asking for a ‘do-over’.

Hat tip to Kathryn Jean Lopez over at the National Review Corner.

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