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Editorial: Legislature must put aside feuding

After a three-month adjournment, the second session of the Sixth Legislative Yuan got underway yesterday. Despite the ridicule and criticism that's been leveled at them, our legislators look set to continue neglecting their duties and wasting taxpayers' money. With pressure from the year-end mayoral and county commissioner elections building up, we dare not hope for too much in the new session other than that legislators refrain from embarrassing Taiwan in the international media yet again.

The previous legislative session saw controversy over China's passing of the "Anti-Secession" Law, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong's (宋楚瑜) China visits, and a transfer of power within the KMT. So we might have expected the current session to be relatively free of sharp political confrontation.

However, after taking up his post as KMT chairman, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) suddenly changed his stance and opposed the proposed US arms procurement plan after Soong, during a meeting last Wednesday, allegedly recounted comments made to him by Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). Soong's eagerness to be Beijing's mouthpiece is shameful, and we also regret that Ma has shown himself unwilling to take responsibility for his political position.

The arms procurement act does not, after all, affect only a single political party. It affects the livelihood and prosperity of all Taiwanese people. If there is any major flaw in the policy, it should be subject to rigorous debate by the government and opposition. Moreover, the public should be made aware of the contents of this policy and its pros and cons. The opposition is wrong to indiscriminately use its legislative majority, blocking the bill on 27 occasions in the procedure committee, so that the bill has never been properly debated before a full sitting of the legislature.

That a policy proposed by the government should give rise to debate with the opposition is a most natural thing in the world's democratic nations. The difference in opinion between the government and the opposition should be subject to open debate and a consensus should be reached, so that the final draft of the bill is one that has the broadest possible public support. This is the real meaning of legislative transparency. At the moment the opposition is practicing a form of violence on the legislative process in using its majority to prevent the bill from even coming before the legislature.

To add insult to injury, this legislation was in fact first formulated under the KMT when it was still in power. So why should it oppose the bill now that it is out of power? And how can Ma, even if he is party chairman, change party policy just on his say-so? Surely this is no different from political blackmail. The hopes of the Taiwanese people that the KMT, under its new chairman, will manage to counter the negative image it has acquired for consistently boycotting policies will likely be disappointed.

One cannot help but feel pessimistic over the current mood in the legislature. If the achievements of the legislature in this new session are similar to the last, in which only 41 bills were passed, then the legislators are clearly in dereliction of their duty, and this will lead to more vociferous public protests. This might even extend to calls for new legislative elections, such as the one made by Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and similar to what was just done by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

We hope that the legislature will prove our pessimism wrong in this new session. We hope that the parties can put aside their feuding, with the pan-blue camp showing its ability to work as a loyal opposition, and the government showing forceful administrative ability, making the legislature a true leader in national development, rather than being a stumbling block.
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