Opposition votes down special session

The opposition-dominated legislature yesterday voted down the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) proposal to call a special legislative session to tackle six priority bills, including the arms-procurement plan and a flood-control package.

Upset by the defeat, the DPP caucus challenged the pan-blue camp to dismiss the legislature and let the people decide whether a special legislative session should be held.

Lawmakers voted 108 to 100 against the DPP proposal, with no abstentions, in the second round of an open ballot.

Only four lawmakers from the eight-member Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) took part in yesterday's voting. All voted in favor of the DPP's proposal.

Before the vote, two representatives from each legislative caucus spoke for five minutes to explain their party's position on the matter.

DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) criticized opposition parties for blocking the proposed session. He said they were acting merely out of party interest.

"The reason the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] caucus changed its mind at the last minute and sided with the People First Party [PFP] [to vote down the proposal] is because it wanted to court its counterpart in supporting a long-delayed plan for a merger," he said.

The reason the PFP rejected the proposed session was even more ridiculous, he said.

Lai was referring to the caucus' demand for an apology from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), whom they said had accused PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) of meeting the director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), during a trip to the US.

"If an apology is made under pressure, it does not necessarily mean that the apologizer was wrong," he said. "If a political party makes decisions based on personal resentment, it does not deserve to even exist."

Lai also called into question Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (王金平) credibility, and charged him for "reneging on the promise" he made during cross-party negotiations on July 29.

Lai said that during the meeting, Wang had ruled that the proposed extraordinary session should be scheduled for this Monday and Tuesday.

Lai said that if the opposition parties thought their actions to be justified, then he would challenge them to dismiss the legislature and let the people decide on the matter instead.

The important thing was to let the public know that opposition parties had to pay a price for their "irresponsible behavior in habitually boycotting government bills," he said.

Another DPP caucus whip, Jao Yung-ching (趙永清), expressed regret over the vote and voiced pessimism over the fate of the six priority bills that would have been debated.

However, the opposition parties have offered to push forward the upcoming legislative session to Sept. 6 to deal with the bills.

"We are very disappointed and feel foolish because we believed that both the KMT and the PFP would agree to hold the proposed special session on Aug. 15 and 16," Jao said.

Instead of safeguarding the public interest and national security, Jao said, the pan-blue camp had chosen to "continue collecting paychecks without doing anything" during the long summer recess.

Jao also appealed to KMT chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to usher in a new era after he formally takes up the party's helm next Friday.

With opposition parties also offering to schedule additional plenary sessions to screen bills, Jao called on them to refrain from boycotting the priority bills in the Procedure Committee.