Inter-party negotiations over the passage of three political reform bills broke down yesterday, with wide differences remaining over what role parties should play in commercial enterprises and how the KMT's billions of dollars in assets should be dealt with.
In what was promised as a move to level the political playing field, the KMT's presidential candidate, Vice President Lien Chan
The Trust Enterprise Law, the Political Party Law, Lobby Law and Political Contributions Man-agement Law are seen as the manifestation of that pledge, and they are supposed to be passed by next Tuesday -- before the end of the current, truncated legislative session and in time for the presidential election.
Besides the Trust Enterprise Law, the bills have never been debated in committee, having been sent straight to the second reading on the floor. Inter-party negotiations, therefore, are seen as a necessary step to achieve consensus before a vote is taken.
Lawmakers have agreed in principle that all four bills will go through the second and third reading together. If one is held up, none will pass.
Yesterday, however, it became clear that major differences over the Political Party Law -- which specifically restricts parties' roles in commercial businesses -- are proving difficult to overcome.
Both the DPP and New Party insist that the law should expressly forbid parties from either investing in or operating commercial businesses.
The KMT argues that investment should be permissible, just as long as parties do not operate the businesses themselves.
The KMT is the only party in Taiwan to have commercial business operations.
Hong Yuh-chin
"We will stop operating commercial businesses and the assets will be entrusted to generate earnings [to sustain the party's operation]," Hong said. "Otherwise, how is the KMT going to take care of the large number of its workers, both active and retired?"
His position did not go unchallenged, however. Cheng Pao-ching
"The KMT is trying to dazzle voters with pledges of reform, just to win votes," Cheng said.
"Lien promised one thing, but the party's actually doing ano-ther," he said.
The DPP has also demanded that an independent committee be set up to investigate and handle the KMT assets, which it alleges were mostly obtained through illegal and inappropriate methods during the martial law era.
Taiwan's second-largest party, which has barely stayed afloat financially for most of its 13-year existence, maintains that the KMT should only be allowed to put assets into trust that have been determined to be clean. Moreover, it says, no party should possess assets worth more than NT$3 billion.
"The KMT will gain even more money after the assets are put into trust. Thus, there will never be fair competition between political parties in Taiwan," argued Lin Tzung-nan (林宗男), the executive director of the DPP caucus.
The KMT officially claims its assets are worth about NT$100 billion, but some analysts have put the figure nearer NT$600 billion,which would make it by far the world's richest political party.
Regardless of the value, Hong said the KMT has legal ownership of all its assets and is free to deal with them as it likes, enjoying the legal protection that prevails in any democratic society.
"This is not a liquidation struggle against the KMT; this country is not ruled by a communist regime," Hong said.
He said the KMT will make a clear account of its assets before they are entrusted.
The DPP is adamant, however, that this is all empty talk.
The next round of negotiations is set for Monday.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS