lawmaker floored another yesterday. Apparently unaware that the camera was on them, Kuomintang Legislator Chen Chao-yung and his Democratic Progressive Party colleague Chen Hsien-chung began the bout, while their laws and regulations committee was acting on a frozen budget of the Ministry of Personnel in the morning.
The protagonists were for and against the freezing of the 2006 budget of the ministry that wanted to cut an 18 percent interest payment for government retirees but managed to cut only a little in the summer of last year.
Two months after the curtailment started, the opposition ordered a suspension and froze the budget of the ministry until a new retirement pay bill is passed.
As soon as Chu Wu-hsiung, minister of personnel, had presented a plea for unfreezing the budget at the meeting, the Kuomintang lawmaker lashed out against him, charging the ministry had secretly spent part of the frozen fund.
That met with a verbal counterattack Chen Hsien-chung launched in Chu's defense.
The Chens shouted abuse against each other, but it was not the gong from refereeing committee convener Chen Chin-teh but the DPP lawmaker's "f*** your mother" that kicked off the fight.
It was an easy first round.
Colleagues rushed in to separate the tangle of the two Chens.
Both boxers, however, continued shouting obscenities during the brief rest.
The heightened shouting match touched off the second round.
That wasn't a good round, either. The boxers were separated, again, without either getting hit below or above the belt.
Then, just when everybody thought the bout was over.
The DPP legislator unleashed a sneak attack to start the third round.
Chen Chao-yung was hit in the eye. His opponent got out of the "ring" after the sneak attack, but the Kuomintang lawmaker ran after his retreating foe who did not throw in a towel.
Taller and stronger, Chen Chao-yung caught up and threw a hook, which crashed in the DPP legislator's left eye drawing blood.
Then the punch, that floored Chen Hsien-chung.
There was no counting.
For the convener called in police guards, who stopped the fight.
But the argument continued.
The Kuomintang legislator said his DPP opposite number shouldn't have used the obscene "four-letter" word. "Nor should he have tried the sneak attack," he charged.
The floored lawmaker denied he started the fight.
Though the TV audience was entertained, the lawmakers achieved nothing in their committee meeting. The budget of the ministry for last year remains frozen.
And all lawmakers of the laws and regulations committee condemned the boxing match, which, they said, should not have taken place in front of TV cameras.
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