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DPP sets sights on
Procedure Committee
STONEWALLING: The DPP says the KMT has long used
the legislative committee to block its proposals, and is calling for reforms and
to make its meetings transparent
By Lee Yu-hsin / Staff Reporter
With the eighth term of the Legislative Yuan scheduled to convene later this
month, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has aimed its sights on amending
the Procedure Committee, calling it the main battlefield on which the governing
party blocks the legislative proposals of the opposition party.
According to Article 4 and 5 of the Organization Act of the Legislature’s
Procedure Committee (立法院程序委員會組織規程), the committee is in charge of determining
whether the procedures of legislative proposals are to form, determining whether
the contents of the proposals are within the purview of the Legislative Yuan,
combining, sorting and changing of proposal categories and priorities, and
arranging the legislators’ reports on proposal reviews to the Yuan Sittings.
The nation saw its first transfer of power when the DPP won the presidency in
2000. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), then an opposition party that held a
majority over the DPP in the Legislative Yuan, was accused by the DPP caucus of
using its majority to completely stonewall proposals pitched by the DPP caucuses
through the Procedure Committee.
Following the transfer of power in 2008 in which the KMT resumed office, the DPP
accused the KMT caucus of continuing to stonewall the DPP caucus’ legislative
proposals.
DPP caucus director-general Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said yesterday that although the
DPP legislators in the last legislative term had suggested legislative proposals
in accordance with regulations, the Procedure Committee still refused to accept
the proposals.
“This not only goes against the constitutional rights of legislators to propose
legislative acts, it also goes against the spirit of democratic government,” Pan
said.
“Right now we’re still collecting the proposals from our legislators and the DPP
caucus is notifying the other opposition caucus’ to seek their support,” he
said, adding that the DPP would propose an amendment to the Organic Law of
Committees of the Legislative Yuan (立法院各委員會組織法) and that reforms to the
Procedure Committee were the DPP’s top priority for this term.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and the People First Party (PFP) caucuses have
welcomed such amendments, with TSU caucus convener Hsu Chun-hsin (許忠信) saying
the Procedure Committee system absolutely needed reform and PFP caucus convener
Thomas Lee (李桐豪) saying that if the DPP caucus were willing to propose the
amendment, the PFP caucus would consider working with them.
The KMT caucus is being reserved on the issue.
KMT Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said the KMT caucus is declining to comment
because the issue has not yet been discussed within the party caucus.
Previously when the issue was debated, with the opposition party calling for
more transparency in holding the committee session, the KMT caucus said that
although the Procedure Committee’s session was not completely recorded, it “did
allow the press to come in and cover it.”
Lee said that allowing press coverage alone does not constitute being
transparent, adding that the recordings of the Procedure Committee meetings
should be made public so the public can see the entire meetings and decide for
themselves whether the committee was acting reasonably.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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