Opposition holds up legislation

The last day of the legislative session ended hours ahead of schedule yesterday evening thanks to moves by the opposition to set aside bills until September.

"The current session, started on Feb. 25, had completed 88 items before adjournment and will be resumed on Sept. 5 when it should firstly deal with the confirmation of 15 grand justice nominees," Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said after rounds of multiparty negotiations yesterday.

The controversial bills set aside include revisions to the Cable Television Law (有線廣播電視法), the Satellite Broadcasting Law (衛星廣播電視法) and the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣播電視法). The revisions were blocked due to the lack of support from the TSU.

DPP Legislator Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), an advocate of the revisions, objected to their postponement.

Wang rejected Luo's demand that the delay in reviewing the revisions be reconsidered.

Opposition lawmakers, meanwhile, blocked the advancement of several proposed revisions dealing with judicial and monetary reform.

"The KMT and PFP earlier delayed the confirmation date for grand justice nominees. They succeeded in slowing down the government's hope of advancing judicial reform by deferring review of revisions to the Judicial Yuan Organization Law (司法院組織法)," said DPP legislative leader Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).

DPP lawmakers expressed their frustration with the opposition's moves to block pan-green initiated reforms.

"The opposition members attained a goal of postponing bills related to legislative reform by disappearing from final negotiations, despite a multi-party consensus on March 18 identifying bills to be dealt with this session," Ker told reporters.

The legislature also decided to halt reviews of the proposed Resolution Trust Corporation, a special fund that would be used to aid the country's troubled financial system.

Amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) were deferred after lawmakers failed to reach a consensus during negotiations yesterday afternoon.

"The PFP gave their explanation for delaying the review by saying they just figured out a need to reconsider their previous position on the amendment after witnessing Beijing's maneuvering with respects to Taiwan on the SARS epidemic," explained Legislator Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), the DPP's representative at negotiations on the statute.

The legislature, under pressure after having cleared only 38 bills prior to yesterday, decided to set aside most controversial items yesterday afternoon and focused on completing dozens of revisions to the National Health Insurance Law (全民健康保險法) and legislation to improve the working rights of disabled citizens.

It also reviewed revisions to the Merchandise Labelling Law (商品標示法) which require merchandisers to label a product with its place of origin.