Mon, Jan 19, 2004 page1

• Pan-blue camp plans to muscle in on legislature

  BULLYING TACTICS The opposition alliance says it plans to use its majority in the Legislative Yuan to have Chen's right to call a referendum revoked

  • By Fiona Lu / STAFF REPORTER
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  A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator said yesterday that a legislative resolution, suggested by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) to revoke President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) proposed referendum on March 20, would showcase the pan-blue camp majority's bullying at the Legislative Yuan.

  The DPP, in the minority at the legislature, lost all of the 15 legislative showdowns while formulating the Referendum Law (公民投票法) last November, with the result that the KMT-PFP alliance passed a referendum law that curbs people's right to hold a referendum, DPP Legislator Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said.

  "The KMT and PFP are now deliberating an amendment to deprive the president of the power to take a referendum initiative, which indeed would prohibit people from any right to hold a referendum," Cho said.

  The KMT and PFP meanwhile threatened to formulate a legislative resolution that would force Chen to recall the referendum on the two questions he unveiled on Friday. This is the way in which the opposition parties use bullying methods to get what they want in the legislature, Cho said.

  Cho's criticisms were a response to opposition lawmakers vowing to push ahead with overhauling the Referendum Law to revoke the president's power of initiating referendums.

  The KMT and PFP in addition planned to formulate a legislative resolution on the two referendum questions to compel the president to recall his referendum plan.

  Cho said that the opposition's idea lacked a legal foundation in either the Constitution or the Referendum Law.

  "Furthermore, the indirect democracy exercised by legislators cannot be stronger than a referendum, where the electorate directly voice their opinion through a public vote," he said.

  Cho pledged that the DPP would protect the dignity of laws and safeguard people's right to hold referendums.

  The pan-blue parties should easily be able to pass a legislative resolution, which merely requires approval from half of the 225-member legislature, since they form the majority in the Legislative Yuan.

  A resolution driven by the opposition calling on the president to stop his referendum plan, however, would be unusual and engender a controversy over legislative power.

  A resolution concerning the president's proclamation actually would be of little significance, since the legislative order has nothing to do with laws.

  A DPP caucus leader nonetheless denounced such a motion.

  "A legislative resolution cannot be in conflict with the law. The resolution proposed by the KMT and PFP would be null and void because President Chen proposed the referendum in accordance with the Referendum Law," said Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯).

  Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) whip Cheng Cheng-lung (程振隆) reminded his opposition counterparts that a legislative resolution could not supersede a referendum.

  "In that case, a referendum by the people of Quebec to decide whether they want to be separate from Canada could be replaced by a parliamentary resolution that there is no need to have a referendum," Cheng said.

  In related news, PFP legislator leader Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), who is also the deputy director of the KMT-PFP alliance's policy department, yesterday said that Chen and the Executive Yuan had put pan-blue mayors and county commissioners on the spot by saying that they would be punished for the offense of interfering with their public function if they don't support the holding of the referendum.

  The alliance said on Saturday that it would request a constitutional interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices and also ask pan-blue mayors and county commissioners to boycott the referendum.

  "Even if pan-blue mayors and county commissioners go along with it and support the referendum in their respective constituencies, what would happen if the council hands down its interpretation later and says the referendum is illegal?" Chou asked. He said that the local leaders would then, according to the law, face charges of holding illegal referendums.

  "In that event, Chen or the Executive Yuan must assume all legal responsibility," Chou said, demanding that Chen make a public pledge about this matter.

  (additional reporting by Huang Tai-lin)
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