I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet. After all, how many stories do you get with lines like “Legislators will no longer be able to remove ladies underwear at parties or nightclubs.”
[quote]In order to restore their tarnished image, legislators have informally agreed not to pursue women working as reporters, female authors and actresses in a bid to cut the number of sexual affairs. A consensus was also reached on what behavior is acceptable in the company of women, the China Times Express reported.
Legislators will no longer be able to remove ladies underwear at parties or nightclubs; instead the women will have to take them off themselves. It is all part of the legislators’ attempt to make it clearer whether women are complicit in sexual acts with legislators…
[DPP Legislator Tang Huo-shen] said: “I heard that as a tradition, some legislators who have been regularly elected to the legislature are used to having sex parties and orgies. But the younger, more recently elected legislators in the DPP, don’t usually get involved and focus on their job.”
Tang added that it was common for legislators to be entertained with flowing wine and women. “This has disappeared over time, partly because the economy is not as good as it was in the past and also because newly elected legislators wish to have a clean image…”[/quote]
“TSU sets three sex noes to clean up sleazy image.”
What’s wrong with wine, women, and song? People should stop being so uptight about politicians acting like ordinary joes. Once you’re off the clock your personal time is your personal time. As long as their entertainment isn’t on the public dime, I couldn’t care less what they do. It’s high time the media and voters butted out of other people’s private lives. You realize that half the people ‘outraged’ over sleazy politicians, those same people plan on going out that weekend to get drunk and ogle women themselves. The public are, always have been, and probably always will be, moral hypocrites. “Oh, but it’s a different story when I’m doing it!”
I made a New Years resolution to completely cut out chat board chat but…this article is such a classic I had to say thanks to Cranky Laowai for spotting this. What a hoot, my attorney friends back in California will love it. Maybe the California Election Commission will set up similar guidelines. You know, it is shit like this that really makes Taiwan look like a pathetic backwater. Which I guess it is.
As to why nobody saw it, I would guess the China/Taiwan News is the one english paper that really few people read. As to Mod Lang’s comments; I agree that playing grab ass with the girlies is not a public issue–if no public money is being spent and or involved. But that is usually not the case. What the deal is 99 times out of 100 is that the “girlie grabass time” is being paid for as part of a bribe by some vendor or contractor or someone else who needs a “legislative favor”.
So it does have a public/political impact. Plus remember Adultery is a Crime in Taiwan. The MOJ should make some public awareness campaign out of it like “Panty Pulling (if not your wife’s)=State Prison” or some such jingle. Oh, one final note the DPP guy who is trying to claim this is “a thing of the past” is full of shit. All political parties and all age groups are (based on what local prosecutors tell me) equally prone to these sorts of “trade offs”.
Special Agent Brian
Legislative Yuan Sex Rules Enforcement Division
But a rather selectively enforced law. When’s the last time a husband was prosecuted for adultery? Especially considering how rampant it is amongst the male population. As with most traditional societies, the hypocrisy of punishing one gender for “crimes” that the other gender enjoy at will persists.
I remember the media gave a lot of attention a few years ago to a legislator’s claim that his male colleagues in the Lifayuan had an average of something like eight to ten mistresses each. No wonder they have such an appalling record of reviewing and passing legislation – in between shagging their mistresses, coming on to pretty female reporters, putting on idiotic shows for the media, cursing and slugging each other, and taking off women’s underwear at parties and clubs, they can hardly have much time or energy left for doing what they were supposedly elected for.
Whenever a legislator is caught cheating his picture should be put on the front page of the newspaper for all to see. The rules of conduct they SHOULD abide by are different than those of an ordinary Joe.
That is an amazing story Cranky. What really exasperates me about Taiwan politicians, though, is how they incessantly make up lies about each other and then sue for defamation. What the hell is wrong with them and will they ever grow up?
January 6, 2004
First lady Wu Shu-chien yesterday filed a slander lawsuit against opposition Kuomintang chairman and “pan-blue” presidential candidate Lien Chan, alleging the politician falsely accused the president of taking illegal kickbacks. etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2004/ … 353781.htm
December 12, 2003
People First Party lawmaker Chiu Yi (
I saw this article too, and reacted predictably. (“And…just where ARE these orgies?”)
Maybe they could get an independent prosecutor to come launch an investigation. Someone completely outside the system, who can be suitably objective–like, say, the governor of California.
Surely there’s a job here for Michael J. Fox if ever there was one…?
What were they elected to do? I have had so much fun reading this thread that I have forgotten what these members of the LiFaYuan are supposed to be doing . . . . . Please clarify this for me. Thanks.
It’s hard to say. They obviously don’t have much of a clue, but nor do most of the silly people who cast their votes for them. However, most of them know very clearly why they sought election: to promote themselves, line their pockets, lord it over the rest of the populace, and enjoy such perks as those referred to in this thread. So that’s what they busy themselves doing, and never mind what else they could or should be attending to to earn their bloated salaries and extras.
Something the article didn’t make clear is whether this informal agreement is among the legislators of just the TSU or those of all the parties. Has anyone seen anything more on this? Special Agent Brian, have you heard anything?
I noticed that lack of clarity also, Cranky, and suspect it is another example of extremely misleading Taiwan journalism.
The article says, “legislators have informally agreed not to pursue women working as reporters, female authors and actresses. . .[and not to] remove ladies underwear at parties or nightclubs. . .”
I suspect that a bunch of lawmakers were sitting around drinking kaoliang and pulling panties off of bargirls when they decided upon the rules, which were never actually committed to writing.
And thus is the tragedy of the inequality of the sexes that has always existed in Chinese culture, and despite claims to the contrary, not much has been done to get rid of these outdated ideas … using “culture” as an excuse can only go so far …
Cranky Laowai, I asked around in my class yesterday and the consensus (it was an all prosecutor class) was that it was a very, very informal agreement. So informal as to make the question of who was “bound” by it meaningless. What a couple of the folks thought and everybody kind of agreed, was that this was just a chance for a couple of the clowns (excuse me, I meant esteemed legislators) to have a press conference and get their names and smiling sleazy faces in the paper on a slow news day.
Mod Lang, you mention that adultery is rarely prosecuted. That may not be so true. I do not have (nor really care) what the stats are but about half my prosecutor students at any one time have an adultery case sitting on their desks. All it takes is for the victim spouse (i.e. the cheated on one ) to go down to the local prosecutors office and push the button (like the Country Hag was doing a few days ago, although that was for libel, Taiwan’s Favorite Way to Waste Criminal Justice Tax Dollars).
Prosecutors in Taiwan, unlike the United States, have basically zero prosecutor discretion. If spouse demands it then a prosecutor investigation must (note: must) be conducted to see if other spouse is doing the wild thing ex-marriageo (that is made up Brian latin for outside of the marriage).
Those kind of cases can be viewed two ways. If one looks at them as real people in sad situations then of course they are sad. If one views those involved as Loony Tunes cartoon characters (like I am starting to view all of Taiwan) then some of the stories I have heard about adultery cases are great comedy. Taiwanese do have a flair for melodrama, I will grant them that.
Take care,
Dr. Brian
San Chung City Legislative Ethics Commission
Taiwan’s adultery law is even more absurd when you consider that most judges in Taiwan (like Bill Clinton) don’t consider oral sex to be sex. Therefore, extramarital intercourse is punishable by up to one year in jail; extramarital blowjobs are OK. I guess the lesson is to be careful how one strays.
Taiwan rules oral sex isn’t adultery
A group of Taiwanese judges and lawyers say oral sex isn’t intercourse and so isn’t adultery. Judges are not bound by the decision but it can be used as a reference in future cases. Forty-nine of 60 judges and lawyers support the view that intercourse means genital-to-genital contact. ananova.com/news/story/sm_70 … s.quirkies
Speaking of rules for legislators . . . . . do you think it is proper for the President of the Legislative Yuan to serve as a high ranking official in the KMT Party?
Personally, I think that is a conflict of interest . . . . . and the same for the Mayor of Taipei serving as a high ranking official in the KMT party, and the same for President Chen serving as head of the DPP . . . .
