The Legislative Yuan is bracing itself for a showdown vote today on the law governing the operation of the National Assembly as cross-party talks called to tackle the issue yesterday failed to get off the ground.
After the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was the only party to show up for the talks, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"Since these are the last cross-party talks held to discuss the matter, I will handle the DPP caucus' motion [today] in accordance with the law if it files a request to reconsider the legislation," he said.
Despite joining other parties to pass the Law on the National Assembly's Exercise of Power (
The National Assembly is to meet in the coming weeks to approve a raft of constitutional amendments passed by the legislature last August, which include halving the legislature, abolishing the assembly and putting the right to referendum in the Constitution.
The DPP hopes to lower the bar for the assembly's approval of constitutional amendments from the law's 75 percent to a 50 percent simple majority -- its original position before the May 14 National Assembly elections -- and also hopes to exclude invalid ballots from the total number of votes. The statute currently stipulates that ballots cast by assembly members failing to toe their party's line should be considered invalid, but be counted into the total number of votes anyway.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) yesterday threatened to join forces to strike down the DPP's motion to reconsider part of the law, during today's plenary legislative session. The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and Non-partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) also voiced their opposition to the DPP plan.
According to the legislature's rules, lawmakers managing to collect more than 40 signatures can request that the legislature review part or all of a bill that has already been passed. The request must be made during the first plenary legislative session following the passage of the bill, which in this bill's case takes place today.
The legislative speaker is obliged to deal with the request by the end of the day the request is made. The speaker could put the DPP's motion to a full vote, or could put off the motion for discussion at a later time.
Before the bill under re-examination is dealt with by the legislature, it cannot be promulgated by the president. Also, the vote on a measure to reconsider a bill is the last chance to attempt to change a law before it is promulgated.
The director of the DPP's Policy Committee, Ker Chien-ming (
"The reason [for the request] is that the law is flawed," he said, while admitting that the DPP has been pressured by some private groups.
The passage of the legislation reportedly angered former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), who has been pushing the DPP to stand firm on its former stance of a simple majority ratification threshold for constitutional amendments.
The DPP's decision to request a review of the law was jointly made by the party headquarters and the caucus, Ker said.
According to Ker, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) telephoned him Friday after the law passed the legislature to discuss the possibility of filing a request to review some articles of the law. A caucus meeting was also held at noon that day to discuss the matter.
Despite the DPP's appeal to other parties, the KMT and PFP caucuses yesterday did not hesitate to pour cold water on the rival party's proposal.
"We are not a subordinate of the DPP," said KMT caucus whip Chen Chieh (
PFP caucus whip Chen Chih-pin (陳志彬) said that it is meaningless and ineffective to talk with a party which reneges on its promises.
For his part, DPP Legislator Chen Chin-de (
"[Wang] knew that DPP caucus whip Jao Yun-ching (趙永清) did not show up at the cross-party negotiations, nor did he assign any proxy to sign the agreement, but he turned a blind eye to it," he said.
Chen criticized the multiparty negotiation system for leading to oligarchy in the legislature as well as secret meetings, spoils systems and blackmail politics.
"It also results in legislative mayhem ... as well as the formidable power of caucus whips and Wang's dominating role," he said.
In other legislative news, contentious articles in the draft amendments of the Outlying Islands Development Law (離島建設條例) will be put to a vote if no consensus is made during a four-month cross-party negotiation period.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats