Chen avoids legislative standoff

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday decided against exercising his constitutional authority to ask the Legislative Yuan to hold a special session for confirming the nominations for the Council of Grand Justices.

However, Chen blamed opposition politicians for delaying the reviewing procedures for the nominees, accusing them of blindly pursuing party interests.

He urged opposition parties to give up selfish partisan interests and to end political wrangling so that the review procedures could be completed by October.

"Considering the maintenance of political stability and social order, and given that the government is trying to develop the economy and fight SARS, we do not want to see any more political confrontation," Chen said in a statement read by Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁).

"We seriously expect that all political parties will exercise their duty with an impartial and detached attitude and accomplish the review procedures before the current Council of Grand Justices completes its term to avoid bringing about a constitutional crisis or democratic disorder," Chen said.

"Given this, I decided not to issue the request to the Legislative Yuan for a special session," he said.

Chen had nominated 15 candidates for the next council, which is scheduled to convene on Oct. 1. The Presidential Office formally sent the list of nominees to the Legislative Yuan on May 21 for review.

However, the KMT and PFP, accusing the Presidential Office of failing to provide them with enough documents and time for review, voted on Friday to postpone the review of the nominees until September.

Chen had expected to have the review completed before the end of the current session.

The DPP said the purpose of the blue camp's opposition was to demonstrate its power to block moves by the president.

Chen has to chose between exercising his authority to ask the legislature to complete the confirmation of the nominees before September or to accept the opposition's decision and let it face public anger over the move.

"As the head of the state, it is inappropriate for the Presidential Office to directly issue the request for a special session to the Legislative Yuan because President Chen should act as a negotiator and moderator above the five branches of the government, rather than becoming involved in a conflict," said DPP caucus leader Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯).

"Therefore, only once we [the party caucus] collect the signatures of half the 223 lawmakers to support the president's idea, can the ruling party ask the president to issue its request," he said.

Tsai said it is almost impossible to get over half of all lawmakers' support, "but we still have to proceed and do our best to let the public understand why the opposition's boycott was irrational."

Chiou told reporters after delivering the president's statement yesterday that Chen's responsibility is to maintain stability and ease the tension between the opposition and the ruling party.