The battle by Taiwan's two major political parties to unseat each other's lawmakers is getting larger and messier, posing even more challenges to an already politically embattled President Lai Ching-te.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Extradition of pro-China parties. Restore the unity of Congress.
00:09Pushing to recall en masse lawmakers from Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang
00:14or KMT, who this civil society group says are undermining the country's democracy.
00:21But what they are doing today is beyond the scope of restoring the unity of Congress.
00:26They are corrupting the administration and even taking over the administration.
00:31This is not the same as the people's right to vote.
00:38Recalling lawmakers is the latest battle in a political war between the KMT and the ruling
00:43Democratic Progressive Party or the DPP, who want to shift the balance of power in the
00:49country's legislature, currently in the hands of the KMT and other opposition lawmakers
00:53after they slashed the DPP government's budget.
00:57It's causing a political crisis for the party head and president, Lai Ching-de, who called
01:02a first-of-its-kind meeting with the heads of all five branches of government, including
01:06the legislature, urging unity.
01:10Under these challenges, Taiwan must be united.
01:14Only when we are united do we have the strength to strengthen national defense, develop the economy,
01:20build up the resilience of the whole society, and stand closely with the democratic camp
01:27can we respond to the changing situation.
01:31Lai faces an uphill battle in breaking this political deadlock.
01:35The two parties fundamentally disagree on what sort of relationship Taiwan should have
01:40with neighboring China.
01:42The DPP firmly rejects China's claims of sovereignty over Taiwan, while the KMT prefers closer
01:47ties with Beijing, says Lai and his party are provoking war across the strait, and that
01:52the DPP is working with civil society groups to fuel the recall campaign with false accusations.
01:59At the landmark meeting of top government leaders, KMT heavyweight Han Kuo-yu said the
02:04ball was in Lai's court.
02:19Putting Lai in a particularly difficult situation.
02:22President Lai is not only the president, he's also chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party.
02:27So if he really wanted to, he could say that the party doesn't support these recall motions
02:34Nominally, these efforts are run by civil society groups.
02:38It's not run by the party.
02:40But Ko Jianming, who's the head of the DPP's legislative caucus in the legislative unit,
02:46has been an outspoken supporter of these recall efforts.
02:50Taiwan's divided government, with the president's office and the legislature in the hands of
02:54different parties, is causing some of the biggest political drama here in years.
02:59Drama that Lai Ching-de is now under growing pressure to put to an end.
03:04Howard Jang and Rick Lowatt for Taiwan Plus.