Parties to work on schedule for reform

Lawmakers vowed yesterday to push ahead with constitutional reform.

Initiated by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), a motion stating that the legislature should develop a schedule for revamping the Constitution won endorsement from the legislative leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

The motion called for changing the rules for establishing the ad hoc legislative committee in charge of any amendment.

The TSU motion said altering the rules for forming the committee would help the legislature begin the overhaul soon.

The party came up with the motion after the KMT and its ally, the People First Party (PFP), declared on Monday that they want to halve the number of seats in the legislature, TSU whip Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) said.

"The TSU suspected that the declaration was a fraud of the KMT-PFP alliance to attract votes, given that the two parties have obstructed the pan-green camp's appeal to form the special legislative committee for a long time," he said.

The motion called for multiparty negotiations to establish a consensus on how to form the committee on constitutional change.

The DPP and TSU argued over the current rule that the special committee consist of 114 lawmakers -- equal to one half of the 225-seats in the legislature plus one -- since they thought the operation of the 114-seat body would be inconvenient.

The first task of the special committee would be the proposed downsizing of the legislature.

The TSU, KMT and PFP want to halve the legislature to 113 seats, while the DPP advocates a 150-seat legislature.

A DPP motion also said political parties must report their party assets and finances to the public.

"To complete the goal of establishing a democratic system and fair competition of party politics, parties ought to be banned from running or investing in profit-making businesses," the motion said.

A special law should be formulated to treat properties illegally gained by parties founded before July 1987, the DPP proposed.

DPP Legislator Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said the KMT's controversial assets could be divided into four categories.

"The KMT obtained the first kind by taking over properties of the Japanese colonial government, such as that belonging to the Broadcasting Corporation of China (中廣)," Lai said.

The second kind of property owned by the former ruling party was 19 theaters around the country, of which the KMT has already sold 11 and gained at least NT$100 million," Lai said.

The third kind of asset is the 150 lands donated by local governments, Lai said, adding these lands are worth at least NT$800 million, Lai continued.

"The fourth kind, including the KMT central headquarters in downtown Taipei, was bought by the former ruling party for a price lower than the market value," Lai said.

Despite supporting the DPP motion, KMT caucus whip Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) said his party should not be the only target.

"The thorough check of assets should be expanded to the DPP and TSU since the constitutional revision should not be made for one particular party," he said.

"It is also inappropriate to copy the way of communists to scrutinize one party's assets," Lee said.