A cross-caucus negotiation yesterday ended in stalemate after lawmakers failed to agree on how to deal with 10,421 motions filed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to freeze and slash budgets for the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
“The infrastructure program is a special budgetary item. Every cent of its budget comes from government debt,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said. “The KMT caucus tabled this many motions in the hopes that the money will be well spent.”
The KMT caucus wants to cut NT$33 billion (US$1.09 billion) for controversial items, such as rail construction projects, and projects that are at odds with the purpose of the program, he said.
The caucus is against the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) plan to bundle the budget motions to put them to vote, he said.
The DPP caucus, in a bid to save time, has tabled 100 motions regarding the program, half of which directly address the agencies that will undertake the projects in the program, which could cause the more specific language that opposition parties have submitted in their motions to be overlooked, he said.
“If this can be allowed, committee reviews can also be skipped when reviewing future general budgets,” he said.
“We will just categorize the motions by their governing agencies and put them to a vote during a plenary session. We might as well close the legislature down,” he said.
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) voiced concerns about the KMT caucus’ motions, saying there would not be enough time to discuss all of them.
Since the KMT caucus was still submitting motions yesterday morning, the Legislative Yuan’s printing factory was not able to compile them all and print them in time for yesterday’s meeting, Su said.
The usual practice for reviewing general and special budgets is for lawmakers to just review the “sections” in motions, without addressing smaller units such as subsections and items, he said.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) agreed.
However, KMT lawmakers refused to budge, with Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) saying that it is within lawmakers’ purview to address items listed under motions when reviewing budgets, if necessary.
“We have made our decision. All 10,421 motions must be printed out without a word missing. Every motion must discussed with every word read,” Lin said.
Su later ordered that 25 books containing all the motions filed by the KMT, along with those filed by the People First Party and the New Power Party, to be printed before this morning’s negotiation session, while Ker and Lin continued to bicker over how to deal with the motions.
“The legislature’s operations should not become a joke to the public. I do not believe this is what KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) wants,” Ker told reporters after the meeting.
The KMT should engage in rational discussions rather than “pulling a prank” to paralyze the legislative procedure, he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS