Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential nominee Ma Ying-jeou (
If Ma had taken any other course, he would have had to pay the price in next year's presidential election for the foolish actions of pan-blue legislators.
The KMT finally appears to understand the obligations that political parties and legislators have and is now willing to first examine the budget bill instead of linking it to passage of the commission bill.
The budget bill affects every national construction project, and is important to taxpayers' wallets. Therefore, examining the budget bill is one of the most critical functions of a legislature. The commission bill, in contrast, deals with whether the rules of the political game are fair.
For more than six months the pan-blue camp has mistakenly tried to link the two. Recognizing this error was long overdue.
According to Article 51 of the Budget Act (
The KMT thought it was clever to use its legislative majority to hold the budget plan hostage to force the legislature to review the commission bill. The Democratic Progressive Party, however, is also guilty of paralyzing the legislature to prevent a review of the bill.
If the legislative deadlock is not resolved before the end of this legislative session on Friday -- and if no extraordinary session is held to pass the bill -- then next fall lawmakers will be faced with having to review and pass both the 2007 budget and the 2008 budget. This would put both the government and the legislature in an untenable situation.
The 2007 budget bill has been stuck in the legislature for more than 190 days, delaying national infrastructure projects and tarnishing the national image. It is time to end the farce. The opposition should unconditionally review and pass the budget bill.
There are no winners or losers here. The longer the deadlock, the greater the losses on all sides. The deadlock has resulted in increasing public criticism, and the opposition camp must take the majority of the blame for this. Ma should not be seeking to claim credit for resolving a situation that he previously said he had no control over.
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
A few weeks ago in Kaohsiung, tech mogul turned political pundit Robert Tsao (曹興誠) joined Western Washington University professor Chen Shih-fen (陳時奮) for a public forum in support of Taiwan’s recall campaign. Kaohsiung, already the most Taiwanese independence-minded city in Taiwan, was not in need of a recall. So Chen took a different approach: He made the case that unification with China would be too expensive to work. The argument was unusual. Most of the time, we hear that Taiwan should remain free out of respect for democracy and self-determination, but cost? That is not part of the usual script, and
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at
Behind the gloating, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must be letting out a big sigh of relief. Its powerful party machine saved the day, but it took that much effort just to survive a challenge mounted by a humble group of active citizens, and in areas where the KMT is historically strong. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must now realize how toxic a brand it has become to many voters. The campaigners’ amateurism is what made them feel valid and authentic, but when the DPP belatedly inserted itself into the campaign, it did more harm than good. The
RSS