Editorial: Legislative Yuan needs to do its job

Yesterday, the legislative caucus of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called for a Legislative Yuan temporary session. This was because of the fact that the current session will be over by Tuesday, yet many important bills remain buried in the Legislative Yuan, some without even a chance of getting placed on the agenda for a first reading.

According to DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (賴清德), the number of bills passed by the Legislative Yuan during this session so far is the lowest recorded in the last few years and that those bills that managed to get passed typically entailed only minor amendments to existing laws.

This has apparently become a routine for the Legislative Yuan -- to be so seriously behind with its real work, namely reviewing and deliberating bills, that by the end of each session there is typically a debate about whether to hold a temporary session to do some major catching-up work.

The seriousness of the problem was reflected by Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) more than a week ago. Regarding the People First Party's (PFP) refusal to re-open negotiations between the political parties' legislative caucuses, Hsieh had indicated that lawmakers are "civil servants" to whom such negotiations are a matter of "duty" rather than a right, and that lawmakers have no right to "strike" in such a manner.

Indeed, the nation's taxpayers should be upset about the inefficiency and the neglect of duties by our lawmakers. They seem to have forgotten what their real job is and spend most of their time getting distracted by their "extracurricular activities."

Just at how many pan-blue lawmakers joined Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) on their lavish tours to China, while dust collected on the bills waiting to be enacted in the Legislative Yuan. This is not to mention the fact that many lawmakers are spending most of their time seeking nomination by their parties in the upcoming mayoral and county-commissioner elections. Even Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) himself has been pre-occupied by his race for the KMT chairmanship.

At the same time, the list of major bills that desperately need the due attention of the lawmakers are getting longer.

Then is President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) nomination list for Control Yuan members, which fares no better -- namely that it has not been placed on the deliberation agenda by the procedure committee. This demonstrates the malice driving the opposition camp, since they could at least have reviewed the list and then simply vote against nominees they disagree with. But no, they don't even want to take a serious look at the list. As a result, the Control Yuan has been literally empty since February.

Other bills on the waiting list include the statute governing the 2008 Taiwan Expo (2008台灣博覽會), draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織條例) and the NT$90 billion budget for the 10 Major Construction Projects.

It is truly appalling to hear legislative caucus whip Chen Chih-pin (陳志彬) say that there is no need to hold the temporary session because there are five more sessions remaining for the current Legislative Yuan. No matter how much the opposition may disagree with the president, they should not punish the people who had voted for them in this way.