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Editorial: Crucial time for opposition parties

It was PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) who stole the limelight yesterday with his promise to "coordinate" opposition to the decision on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四). But then Soong, with his weak legislative base, needs all the attention he can get. The real question is what is the KMT going to do. It hasn't looked so marginalized since its crushing in the presidential election in March.

A range of options is being discussed. First, the party can choose to join the PFP for a vote of no confidence against Premier Chang Chung-hsiung (張俊雄). Then again it can go for the kill and seek to impeach President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Last but not least, the party can seek legislative remedies to override the so-called "administrative order" of the Executive Yuan killing the plant.

Some KMT members, not to mention a deeply humiliated party Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), probably find the first two options the most appealing. But a few moments reflection should be enough to convince them that their hands are more closely tied than they think.

The KMT's majority in the Legislative Yuan gives it the muscle to carry on a vendetta. The signatures of just one-third of all legislators are sufficient to propose a vote of no confidence and the approval of a mere one-half of all legislators is required to pass the motion. However, a vote of two thirds of the legislature is necessary to recommend impeachment of president, which the combined opposition parties cannot muster themselves. They might however be able to sway some of the independents and scrape a vote to impeach through. But both of these measures carry a critical downside -- overwhelming economical, political, and social disruption in Taiwan. And neither of them promise, in the end, to better the KMT's position.

In particular, if the premier is removed by a vote of no confidence, Chen is widely expected to dissolve the Legislative Yuan and call a legislative election. Despite Chen's shaky performance so far, recent surveys indicate that the KMT still trails behind both the PFP and DPP in popular support. Therefore, moving up the election may simply mean a premature termination of the KMT's legislative majority to the advantage of the PFP. This is, of course, why PFP legislators have been so much quicker to move forward with a vote of no confidence than their KMT counterparts.

The best possible option for the KMT is still a legislative remedy. The KMT has announced that it will introduce two bills; one to amend the Budget Law and the other to regulate the development of nuclear energy in Taiwan. The former will legally mandate the implementation of legislature-approved budgets and the latter will require the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, while banning the construction of additional power plants and suspend the operation of the other three nuclear power plants already in existence.

Of course first the KMT has to overcome the problem of "retroactive application;" that is, how to make a law applicable to measures which took place before it was passed. Apart from this, the stupidity of suggesting curtailing the powers of the executive by removing any discretion it might have over implementation of a budget should be obvious. A budget is, after all, not legislative direction for the executive to spend a certain amount in certain ways, but rather legislative permission to allow the raising of that amount of money in prescribed ways for the executive's stated purpose. The legislature restrains the executive from taxing, not spending (or in this case not not spending) without consent. So far all we have heard from the opposition party is immaturity and a basic lack of understanding of the first principles of government. It has to do better.
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