Why the Bureaucracy Dislikes the DPP

A friend of mine who works for a foreign government in Taipei says the local government bureacracy doesn't like the DPP. It's easy to see why.

A pan-green legislator was under fire yesterday after he used his position to engineer revenge on a low-ranking Customs official who wouldn't let the lawmaker bring more than the maximum allowable number of cigarettes into Taiwan.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday called for his party's caucus to discipline Legislator Tu Wen-ching (杜文卿) after he used a legislative committee meeting to publicly humiliate the official who had offended him by adhering to the law.

Getting rid of the KMT is only one necessary step in democratizing the island. Another is getting powerful individuals to stop acting like petty tyrants.

Tu used a hearing on Customs to work himself into a paroxysm of juvenile rage -- complete with props -- and attacked the hapless Lin.

"Do you know who I am now? Did I bring any cigarettes? Did I bring any cigarettes in this handbag? Did I?" shouted Tu during the commitee meeting, gesticulating at a bag he asserted was the same he had had when he entered Taiwan on Dec. 19. Yelling at Lin incessantly, Tu pulled items -- including a pair of underpants -- out of the bag and waved them around in the air.

After this frenetic display, Tu -- who said he was a non-smoker -- said he had never shouted abuse at Lin, adding that the cigarettes didn't belong to him, but to his friends.

This is a wonderfully written article, one that lets you know what a shit Tu is, without actually saying so. For example, it describes his tantrum in the legislature, and then immediately cites his claim that he never shouted abuse at Lin, using one to refute the other. Nice work.

I hope the DPP disciplines all five of the legislators and sends a commendation to the Customs official.

[Taiwan] [DPP]