Fed up with the inefficiency of the Legislative Yuan, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday called on government agencies to try to make last minute negotiations with the legislature to facilitate the passage of more legislation before the current session finishes on Jan. 18.
Chang's remarks, however, had exactly the opposite effect to the one he desired, as legislative caucuses abruptly halted cross-party negotiations over the annual budget yesterday afternoon and asked Chang to apologize.
What has angered Chang, Government Information Office Secretary-General Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) told the media after the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday, is that only one bill associated with the resolutions made by the Economic Development Advisory Conference (EDAC, 經發會) has been passed by the legislature.
Su said it was important to see at least 35 more bills proposed by the Cabinet passed by Jan. 18.
"We hope that all departments concerned do their best to help give other bills a push before the legislative session concludes," Su said.
"We mean to make good on our promise that we're determined to execute the agreement reached by the cross-party leader summit last September," he said.
The summit urged the government to realize the resolutions made by the EDAC last August.
Of the 60 resolutions of the conference that required legislative action, the government finalized drafts on 58 of them which are now languishing in the legislature awaiting review.
The only drafts still pending Cabinet approval concern the Executive Yuan's downsizing plans and the organization of a new Employment Safety Administration.
In addition to the 58 EDAC-related bills, the Cabinet has sent another 40 to the legislature this session. Although the legislature has passed 12 out of the more than 100 bills in the queue, only one of these is EDAC-related. The Cabinet had hoped to see 35 more bills -- 25 of which are EDAC-related -- passed before Jan. 18.
Also at the Cabinet meeting, Su reiterated the government's determination to crack down on vote-buying and election violence in the run up to elections for local government leaders and councilors slated for Jan. 26.
"We'll continue the crackdown on vote-buying and election violence following the success [of anti-vote-buying efforts] experienced in the Dec. 1 legislative and county and city head elections," Su quoted Chang as saying.
Fears abound that vote-buying and election violence would resurface.
"We'd like law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and investigators to continue last year's experience and thoroughly carry out the anti-vote-buying efforts," Su said. "Our goal is to root out `black gold' politics and drive vote-buying out of Taiwan's politics."
In a bid to reach the goal, Su said, five guidelines are outlined.
"First of all, the Ministry of Justice should continue to promote its anti-vote-buying resolutions and encourage the public to report suspected behavior to authorities concerned," he said.
In addition, the Supreme Court should establish a task force supervising the anti-vote-buying efforts carried out by district courts.
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Also, the Ministry of Finance should supervise the financial sector to thoroughly implement anti-money-laundering measures.
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