Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday responded to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) call for a debate regarding “parliamentary reforms” while campaigning in Hsinchu, where Ker is being challenged by a New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidate who said Ker was complicit in cementing the legislative “black box” negotiations.
Wang late on Monday wrote on Facebook that he “strongly agrees” with legislative reforms proposed by NPP Chairperson Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and the party’s legislative candidate in Hsinchu City, Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智).
“If this legislative session passes bills allowing the Legislative Yuan to carry out investigations and hold hearings, they could be put into effect when the new legislative session begins in February next year and the new government takes office in May, and there would be no need to wait,” Wang said, adding that he would like to invite the leaders of political parties to have a public conversation over reforms.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“As the New Power Party has a clear and shared view [on the issue], we might as well start the parliamentary reform [debate] in Hsinchu City and invite the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) [legislative candidate] Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), the DPP’s Ker, the NPP’s Chiu and [Chiu’s assistant and one of the student leaders of the Sunflower movement protests last year] Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) to participate,” Wang said on Facebook.
Ker responded to Wang’s remarks by saying: “Legislative reforms should start from the legislature instead of from Hsinchu.”
“I propose a party-to-party debate on the issue to be held, with me representing the DPP and Wang the KMT. We could closely examine the performance of the two major parties in the legislature and decide who is the reformer and who is the anti-democratic pseudo-reformer,” Ker said.
“KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) had not said anything about legislative reform until recently, with his pseudo-reformative proposal for ‘transparent negotiation and efficient legislation’ that came out of nowhere, and history will be the judge of Wang’s efforts toward legislative reforms over the past 17 years,” Ker said.
Ker then posed four questions for Wang.
“Do you, Legislative Speaker Wang, stand with Chu’s anti-democratic proposal to allow the legislature to wield police power against lawmakers, which you have resolutely opposed, despite President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the KMT caucus’ demands, on several occasions?” Ker asked.
“Do you also agree with Chu’s proposals to restrict lawmakers’ actions in the legislature, including prohibiting the occupation of the speaker’s podium and forcing a vote on a bill that has already cleared the one-month period of cross-party negotiations?” he said.
In the remaining two questions, Ker asked Wang to acknowledge that legislative reform-related motions, including those calling for the authority to call for investigations and hearings, proposed by DPP lawmakers have been blocked by the KMT caucus 1,023 times since the sixth legislature, and that Chu led the KMT caucus’ boycott of a draft constitutional amendment bill to lower the voting age from 20 to 18.
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