Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber.

Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday.

The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight.

On Wednesday morning last week, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator-at-large Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) published an op-ed in the United Daily News titled “Unconstitutional martial law: Soldiers should have moral integrity.” Upon reading the words “moral integrity,” I nearly fell off my chair.

In the article, Wu references South Korea’s short-lived declaration of martial law and the KMT’s recently proposed amendments to the Martial Law Act (戒嚴法). He wrote nonsensically, saying lofty things like: “A soldier’s loyalty must be to the country, to their team, to their duties and to the people” — without skipping a beat.