Yesterday’s fights in the Legislature plumbed new depths of moronic and loutish behaviour with at least two legislators ending up in hospital.

Pan-green lawmakers resorted to violence for the second time in an attempt to block the bill yesterday. The first time was two weeks ago when they paralyzed a session by storming the speaker’s podium.

Kuomintang and People First Party lawmakers labeled the pan-green alliance as “violent parties,” while the Democratic Progressive Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union slammed their rivals as the “violent majority.”

KMT lawmaker Chang Sho-wen was struck in his left eye with his cellular phone and blood gushed from his face. He accused DPP lawmaker Lee Ming-hsien (李明憲) of attacking him.

Meanwhile Lee, who was injured on his lips, knees, and nose, accused Chang of insulting him, saying he hit Chang in self-defense. Both lawmakers were sent to the hospital for treatment.

ESWN and Wandering to Tamshui have already done a good job of covering the punch-ups. Suffice to say that it rated somewhere between a schoolground fight and a barroom brawl. A few issues are worth noting about this though:

• The fight was about whether the members of a media watchdog body should be assigned by the Executive Yuan or the Legislative Yuan. Could you get worked up about such a detail enough to draw blood?
• Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) failed to act on his threat to call in the police:
  

  Later in the day, Wang said he did not call the police when a second attempt was made to storm the podium since legislative staff and Non-Partisan Solidarity Union lawmakers helped him stop pan-green lawmakers from retaking it. The attempt was made as lawmakers were reviewing the first article of the NCC.

  In other words, because the blues won the fight, there was no need for the police. How daft is that? It wouldn’t be hard to say that anyone who tried to use physical force to get onto the podium would be evicted and possibly arrested by the police. Sitting and watching the developing fight and doing nothing is very weak leadership of the legislature. It’s pretty clear to me the legislature needs some sort of discipline, and Wang is not providing it.

• The day before this (wholly predictable) fight, the leaders of the two main parties were sitting next to each other chatting about the weather at the National Day celebrations. Why did they not discuss how to restrain their legislators? Waiting for a fight to break out and then blaming the other side is pathetic leadership by both DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)

So although it’s generally junior party members acting like drunken idiots and doing the actual fighting, the fact that senior politicians are providing no sensible leadership makes them just as guilty as their subordinates.