Frustrated by the stalemate in the legislature, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"The KMT caucus has to take full responsibility because it has shut the door of negotiation and keeps boycotting bills proposed by the Executive Yuan and the pan-green alliance at the legislature's procedure committee," said DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (
The pan-blue dominated committee yesterday voted 18 to 12 in favor of shelving 17 bills proposed by the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucuses. The bills include the arms procurement plan, confirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (
While Lien is willing to reconcile with the Chinese Communist Party, he has ordered his party to adopt a "scorched earth" policy to plunge the legislature into a standoff, Lai said.
"We hope the first thing Lien does when he comes home is to help solve the legislative problem," Lai said. "I think it would be more meaningful to help solve domestic problems than to bring back pandas from China."
Despite the opposition voiced by some DPP lawmakers to Lien's return, another DPP caucus whip, Jao Yung-ching (
Lai said that he hopes the legislature passes as many bills and budget plans as possible before the current session ends on May 31 instead of extending the session or even calling a provisional session.
Lai made the remarks in response to a proposal made by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who has indicated that he is under much pressure from the US government to handle the arms procurement plan. Wang has proposed to hold an interim session in July or August to tackle the matter if the legislature fails to pass the arms budget in the current session.
The People First Party (PFP) caucus also voiced opposition to Wang's proposal, saying that it prefers to settle the matter via cross-party negotiations, hopefully by the end of the month.
PFP caucus whip Lee Yong-ping (
The PFP's Chin Hui-chu (
PFP Legislator Wu Ching-chih (
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