A number of bills were expected to be passed late last night or early this morning in the Legislative Yuan on the last day of the current session, but one failed to make it through -- the Trust Enterprise Law (信託業法) which KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (連戰) had hoped would come into law.
The meeting was expected to last well into the wee hours, with some saying it could go past daybreak this morning.
In order to make up for lost time during the current session, lawmakers put dozens of bills on the agenda to be reviewed during the final two days.
It has been a common practice for the legislature to pass very few laws until the last days of every session, a practice that has been criticized as a measure too cursory for a responsible lawmaking process.
Party caucus leaders from all three major parties, together with independent representatives, reached a consensus yesterday to review a total of 29 bills before ending the last full session.
Review of bills already agreed on proceeded smoothly, with fewer than 10 lawmakers remaining on the floor of the legislature most of the day yesterday.
Still, some KMT lawmakers tried to push their caucus leaders to add the Trust Enterprise Law onto the agenda.
"We have the determination to carry out the party's reform, and opposition parties should not hamper reform with only their own political interests in mind," said Eric Chu (
Lien has promised to put KMT assets into trust as a reform measure and his camp insists that the Trust Enterprise Law is a necessary step.
But the DPP and New Party do not agree, saying that the Trust Enterprise Law should be passed in a package along with three other related laws to make it work -- the Political Party Law (政黨法), the Lobby Law (遊說法), and the Political Donation Law (政治獻金法).
"The KMT has already promised to pass the four bills at the second full session meeting after the legislature resumes on Feb. 18," said Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), DPP caucus leader.
KMT lawmakers said that the real reason for the DPP's current opposition to the Trust Enterprise Law was that the DPP did not want to boost Lien's reputation as a reformer.
"Lien vowed to carry out his platform of reforming the party as soon as possible. But it is apparent that the DPP and the New Party are trying everything to hamper him," said Chao Yung-ching (
One bill on the agenda was the Regulations for Establishing and Managing National Stability Funds, (
"These regulations will allow politicians connected with officials to manipulate the stock market, even financial policymaking," said Hsu Tien-tsai (
But the KMT stressed that the regulations could help the government maintain Taiwan's financial system in times of crisis.
Scholars, meanwhile, said that lawmakers have not improved the functions of the Legislative Yuan this session, saying they worked hard only during the last few days of the session to avoid being criticizing for being lazy throughout the rest of the session.
"People have criticized lawmakers for promoting their self-interests. Therefore, political parties have tried to `sweep out' bills related to women, labor or other civil rights during the last full session meeting," said Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University -- suggesting they wanted to create an image of "public service."
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