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Editorial: The economy isn't Ma's priority

Politicians who are serious about their political career and who seek to win the trust of the electorate should bear in mind that "actions speak louder than words." This concept is all the more important for anyone aspiring to enter the Presidential Office next year.

Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the party's presidential frontrunner, said on Tuesday that if elected he would make the nation's economy his priority.

Ma then panned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration for favoring political issues over economic concerns during its seven years in office.

Given Ma's statement on his priorities, one would expect that the Legislative Yuan will have no trouble deciding the government's budget for this fiscal year.

Alas, such optimism is probably wrong.

Chances are that today the bill will once again be stalled on the legislative floor as the KMT remains intransigent in its request that a proposed amendment to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (CEC) (中央選舉委員會組織法) be dealt with before the budget can be discussed.

This position, which the KMT has held since the second half of last year, flies in the face of the Budget Law (預算法), which stipulates that the legislature must approve the government's budget no later than November.

As a result of the KMT's decision to put political concerns ahead of economic issues, the government's budget remained stalled after the year had begun -- a first in the legislature's history.

The main reason why the KMT insists that the commission amendment be treated as the first item on the agenda is that the proposed amendment would allow the commission to select its members proportionally to the number of legislative seats held by each party rather than through nomination by the premier and appointment by the president.

If the KMT were to prevail on this issue, it would enable the pan-blue camp to secure a majority in the commission and thereby give it the means to counter a DPP plan to hold a referendum, during the presidential election next year, on recovering the KMT's stolen assets.

If Ma means what he says and truly intends to give the economy more weight than politics, he should ask his party to stop holding the government budgets hostage and begin discussions on other issues that have an impact on the economy, such as the anti-corruption bills related to the Political Party Law (政黨法), the proposed lobby law and the Political Donation Law (政治獻金法).

Ma obviously saw things otherwise, for yesterday's negotiations on the commission bill once again came to naught. We can only conclude that he didn't mean what he said when he claimed he would make the economy his top priority.

Or perhaps he was just misunderstood. After all, he did say he would prioritize the country's economy "if elected." Until then, we can expect his party will continue to ignore the bills related to the nation's economy.
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