Pan-blues push on with second recall

The legislature yesterday decided to put a second recall motion against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to a vote on Oct. 13, after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers failed to block the opposition-initiated motion from passing.

The motion, sponsored by the People First Party (PFP), received the backing of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and was passed by a vote of 106 to 83.

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers were absent during the vote, with TSU Legislator Tseng Tsahn-deng (曾燦燈) saying that the TSU, would stay away from the issue for now.

"We haven't decided whether to back the recall bid. It depends," Tseng said.

In accordance with the motion, the legislature will convene for a two-day review of the motion on Oct. 11 and 12, and Chen has the right to propose a response to the legislature seven days before then.

The Presidential Office yesterday called the motion irresponsible.

"It's irresponsible for the opposition to initiate another recall drive as one failed in June," Presidential Office spokesman David Lee (李南陽) said soon after the vote.

Lee said the Presidential Office respected the legislature's approval of the motion as it was legal in terms of the Constitution, but it urged the opposition to put issues of public concern such as political and civic stability and economic development first.

Last time around, out of the 221-member Legislature, 119 lawmakers from the pan-blue and independent camps supported the recall -- 29 votes short of the two-thirds majority -- or 147 ballots -- needed to pass the motion calling for a referendum on whether Chen should step down.

"We urge DPP lawmakers to vote in favor of the recall motion this time. Otherwise, we will launch a recall campaign against DPP lawmakers elected in Northern Taiwan, so as to reduce the threshold for the motion," said PFP spokesman Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), referring to the Public Functionary Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法).

Lee Hung-chun added that "the party would not stop its recall attempts until they succeeded."

KMT caucus whip Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) also called on pan-green legislators to support the motion in order to give the "right of referendum" to the people.

During the first recall motion, the pan-blue alliance listed "10 crimes" as its justification, including corruption, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, suppression of the media, incompetent governance and violation of the Constitution.

Chen, at the time, chose to respond to the "10 crimes" in a public address to the nation, and not in a rebuttal statement to the legislature.

DPP lawmakers boycotted the first recall motion's review committee and refused to cast votes, while TSU lawmakers cast invalid votes.

"We may retain the same strategy," said DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) when asked by the press whether the president will give a response to the legislature this time.

Meanwhile, Ker said that pushing through a second motion proved that KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was insincere about facilitating a meeting with Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

The DPP had set a precondition that a cross-party meeting aimed at finding a solution to the current political turmoil would only be held if the recall drive were halted.

"KMT Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) told Minister without Portfolio Lin Si-yao (林錫耀) [on Thursday] that the KMT would persuade the PFP to postpone putting the second recall motion onto the legislative agenda, but it turned out that was a lie," Ker said.