Print

Mail

wiki links

Lawmakers play hooky from session

The Legislative Yuan reconvened yesterday in a peculiar way with most lawmakers absent from the assembly.

More than 30 KMT and PFP lawmakers were outside the legislature to present a petition against high college tuition fees, health insurance premium increases and rising unemployment to Premier Yu Shyi-kun.

The opposition lawmakers claimed that their petition -- collected as the two parties went on a nearly weeklong campaign around the nation -- contained more than 1.3 million signatures.

Ahead of their petition presentation, pan-blue activists staged a protest in front of the Presidential Office because they could not meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who flew to Kinmen on Thursday.

"The president should be denounced for his refusal to meet us since we are here to represent 1.3 million people's opinion," KMT legislative leader Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) said.

The pan-blue lawmakers came face to face with Yu when they visited the Executive Yuan. The meeting lasted for 30 minutes and ended unpleasantly as legislators refused to listen to briefings by Cabinet officials.

"The briefings [about government policy] were necessary ... since lawmakers seemingly obtained inadequate information on policy implementation, despite Cabinet members repeating such presentations at the legislature," Yu said at the meeting.

DPP lawmakers criticized their opposition counterparts' refusal to attend the first legislative assembly.

"The KMT and PFP lawmakers ... should engage in their honest work as legislators and start the legislative agenda today. Instead they took to the street to increase political tension and abandon the scheduled legislative agenda," DPP Legislative leader Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.

DPP Legislator Chiu Chui-chen (邱垂貞) said only three to four PFP legislators showed up at yesterday's assembly while no KMT members appeared for the event.

DPP Legislator Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said the conduct of the pan-blue lawmakers shows the outlook for legislative efficiency in the new session is grim.

"This is a most inglorious way to reconvene a legislative session," he said.

TSU lawmakers began the new session by championing today's rally for rectifying the name of Taiwan. The lawmakers met outside the legislative assembly yesterday morning while their chairman, Huang Chu-wen (黃主文), paid a visit to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).

Huang, a former KMT legislator, exchanged views with Wang on the issues of halving the number of legislative seats as well as advancing referendum legislation.

The speaker said there is room for discussion on reducing the size of the legislature. He said both he and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) believe a 150-seat legislature would be a "very reasonable" size.

Meanwhile, lawmakers and legal academics held a hearing at the legislature to scrutinize the 15 grand justices nominated by Chen in May.

Legislators will start the individual inspection of nominees on Monday and a vote for their confirmation would fall on Sept. 16.

Independent Legislator Su Yin-kuei (蘇盈貴) said the review was chaotic.

He urged his fellow legislators to exercise impartiality and professionalism when confirming the nominees.

Local media have suggested several candidates -- Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生), Lin Tzu-yi (林子儀) and Hsu Yu-hsiu (許玉秀), in particular -- would be confronted by pan-blue lawmakers.

"The party felt that Weng and Judicial Yuan Vice President Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模) need to persuade lawmakers and the public that their political favoritism would not influence their practice as the country's supreme judges," said KMT legislative whip Lee Chia-chin yesterday.

Also see story:
1.31m sign protest petition
This story has been viewed 2491 times.