Hey we all have chances to learn.
If anything, I suspect these new student protests will help break off some of Ko’s shining appeal (not to me, but to the young voters who supported him in 2024). Basically Ko is helping to further wreck his own brand here, I think.
Guy
Can we chip into renting some highway billboards that paint Ko and Hou and Fu and Ma Ying Jeou as equals?
I was very reluctant to admit this, since I’ve admired Huang for his part in the Sunflower movement and being vocal for marriage equality. However, like Ko, there was an obviously change in his rhetoric between 2016 and 2018.
Some will, but many won’t.
There was apparently a dedicated Huang Guochang wall of shame at the recent protests. 
Source: x.com
Guy
That’s a hopeful sign.
The next round of protests will likely be on Friday May 24. Stayed tuned!
Guy
Wondering if anyone else has local friends saying “the DPP pulls these kinds of moves all the time too”? None of the Taiwanese people I’ve brought this up with seem remotely phased by the KMT and TPP’s moves, not to mention they don’t seem to think there’s anything significant about the 15-30k people protesting. Am I reading too much into this or do I just know a bunch of people who don’t care?
My Chinese is terrible, but are those writings quotes of his past statements, back when he was with the Sunflower Movement?
My co-workers are like that but my Taiwanese friends are furious. One of them even used to campaign for Ko when he was running for mayor.
I remember everyone being in love with Ko when he first ran and then one day it was like “no, we don’t talk about that guy. Nope. Bad” and I guess I missed what happened between then and now
Ko was, I think, initially mistaken for a plain speaking secret green guy, someone who could take the keys away from the KMT in Taipei City (which he did, twice). Those who bailed on him now view him as an amoral opportunist, completely without principles, willing to hook up with anyone and anything to advance his interests.
The folks who have continued to support him into 2024 (this group does not include me) still see him as a plain speaking truth teller, even when he is talking sexist homophobic trash. 
Guy
They are talking about 2017’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, when DPP legislator and committee chair Chiu Yi-ying got tired of the KMT stalling and pulled a similar stunt.
What those brainwashed youngsters failed to mention is that the Speaker of the Legislature Su Jia-chyuan nullified the result of that meeting, and the DPP replaced Chiu Yi-ying with another DPP legislator, Gao Jyh-peng, as the committee chair when they redid the meeting following the necessary meeting procedures.
The protesters are basically asking the KMT and the TPP to do the same.
Now it appears that the clash is with the people themselves.
The news sources put the count at thirty thousand.
I can’t figure out if they’re still out there.
The LY will reconvene on Friday. Expect the protesters to return then.
Also over the weekend, more panel discussions are being organized, including this one:
Source: x.com
Guy
Taiwan’s resident expert in the politics of legislative brawling may be Academia Sinica’s Nathan Batto, best know for his work at Frozen Garlic, where he has a new post on last week’s clashes referenced in the title of this thread:
He is also the co-author of a brand new book from Oxford University Press, just released this month, entitled Making Punches Count: The Individual Logic of Legislative Brawls. Are we seeing life imitating academics or what? 
Guy
I imagine every legislator would be trained in Keysi by the end of this session.
I looked at some of the reforms. At least of them seem reasonable.
I hope Taiwanese people think before they protest.
The “president” does not answer questions from parliament in the UK because the UK does not have a “president.” The UK has a prime minister who is an elected member of parliament. That person is speaking to peers. I don’t think this analogy is sound.
In Taiwan’s constitutional arrangement, the President and the Executive Yuan are a separate part of government from the LY. The LY does not have supervisory responsibilities over other government agencies—that is the function of the Control Yuan. All parties have agreed that the President could come and give an address to members of the LY, but they do not agree that the President is answerable to the LY.
Guy
The control yuan isn’t elected by the people. The president should be accountable to the people.
Since 1996, the president in Taiwan has been accountable to citizens through direct elections.
It appears you want a different constitutional arrangement, which is fine by me. We all have our opinions about what a better Taiwan would look like. But what’s being proposed now by the LY . . . I dunno man, they might pass this bill but based on what I can see I doubt it will survive scrutinty by the constitutional court.
Guy
