The new legislative plenary session opened yesterday, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), reduced to a minority party after its election rout, blocking draft bills on “ill-gotten party assets” proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party.
The session commenced with Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) leading the legislature and Executive Yuan officials in observing a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in Tainan in the earthquake that struck on Feb. 6.
More than 100 draft acts sailed through their first readings and were referred to legislative committees for review and deliberation during the morning meeting, including draft bills on governing political parties; amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法); setting up reciprocal offices with China; and the much-discussed legislation on the presidential transition of power.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
What did not get through were four bills aiming to deal with ill-gotten party assets proposed by DPP lawmakers, which the KMT caucus opposed and were sent back to the Procedure Committee.
KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the regulation of political parties’ assets could be included in the proposed political party act, adding that the KMT opposed the DPP’s bills because they are “apparently targeting [the KMT].”
DPP Legislator Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) blasted the KMT’s move on Facebook, saying the KMT “still does not understand why it has been spurned by the public even after its 2014 and 2016 electoral routs.”
Photo: CNA
“The political party act is to ensure a fair playing field for all political parties, and the premise for that fairness depends on the act governing ill-gotten party assets stripping away the competitive advantage that the KMT has held for a long time,” Su Chih-fen said.
The DPP, which now holds a majority in the legislature, can choose to counteract the KMT’s move if it is “determined to propose the bill,” Social Democratic Party spokesperson Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) said, adding that according to legislative regulations, a caucus can only block the referral of a bill to a committee when “there are too few lawmakers present to conduct a vote.”
“In other words, if the DPP appoints a sufficient number of lawmakers to attend the first-reading meeting ... the bills could be successfully referred to the committee for review,” Miao added.
Meanwhile, Lin said prior to the general assembly meeting that the KMT caucus does not and would not oppose legislation on the transition of power, but the legislation must not be unconstitutional.
The draft act will not be reviewed until at least the end of next month or the beginning of April after a question-and-answer session, “so the third reading will probably be completed only after the [May 20] presidential transition,” he said.
“Since the proposed bill will not be in effect for this transition, we should take time to review the bill. The most important thing is not to ensure that it does not go against the Constitution, as the version proposed by [the DPP] does in some parts,” Lin added.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said the DPP’s version of the legislation, which would restrict the incumbent president’s appointment and decisionmaking powers, would generate controversies, and that since a president is elected to a full four-year term, resigning before their time is up or reducing their effective ruling time is unlawful.
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) disagreed, asking why “the KMT, when it proposed its version of the presidential transition bill in 2008, which was little different from the one we have now, did it not find it unconstitutional?”
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
RSS