Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) failed to get his party's version of the arms procurement bill approved by its legislators yesterday, as the KMT legislative caucus decided instead to postpone the proposal indefinitely.
Ma and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
KMT lawmakers, however, refused to back their chairman's proposal, with caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (
A three-hour meeting was held on the matter at KMT headquarters last night in the hope of reaching some consensus. That meeting also failed to reach any firm conclusions, however.
In an interview last month with the Journalist, a local Chinese-language weekly magazine, Wang said that the KMT version of the arms bill would do away with the six Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile systems and the eight diesel submarines, leaving only 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft on its "shopping list."
However, it seems enthusiasm for the propsal has waned.
"Most of our [caucus] members didn't think it necessary at this moment in time to come up with our [own] version [of the bill]," Tseng told reporters after the meeting.
The meeting started with a briefing by KMT Legislator Su Chi (
Su said the president's decision to cause the National Unification Council to cease to function and the National Unification Guidelines to cease to apply was the main reason that KMT lawmakers had decided not to bother with proposing a KMT version of the arms bill.
"[The president's] announcement on the unification council and guidelines implied that [Chen] is moving in the direction of independence. Our support of the arms bill now will seem like an encouragement for Chen [to pursue independence]," Su said.
It was KMT Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) who suggested postponing the party's submission of a version of the bill indefinitely. She said that Taiwan should be cautious not to send out the wrong signals at a time when the president has put independence on his agenda, which could result in the possibility of war across the Taiwan Strait.
While Ma was believed to have hoped that KMT caucus members would have voted in favor of his proposal, Lei said that KMT legislators didn't feel any pressure from the chairman.
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