Tang denies `figurehead' charge

Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) denied lawmakers' allegation yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had turned him into a figurehead, saying that such speculation is "unnecessary."

"The president as well as the premier exercise their powers according to the constitution. So speculation [about my interaction with Chen] is simply unnecessary," Tang said.

Tang made the statement at the legislative chamber in the wake of allegations from opposition party legislators that the president had interfered with the premier's power by convening finance-related ministers at the presidential office to discuss solutions to the poor performance of the stock market on June 29.

Tang claimed that the Cabinet members who met with the president that day had already discussed related issues with him. "And it is I who allowed them to go, not that they went there on their own initiative," Tang said, adding that his absence was due to his previously planned return to the hospital for a treatment meant to help him recover fully from recent chest surgery.

During his first day facing interpellation from lawmakers, Tang's relationship with the president was only one of many areas that opposition party legislators -- including the New Party, the People First Party (FPP) as well as the KMT -- questioned Tang about. The tension between the legislative and the administrative branches and cross-strait relations were also areas in which the premier was grilled.

Tang admitted that policies put forward by the new government -- including the senior citizens' monthly stipend program and the reduction of the workweek for waged workers -- had met with setbacks at the legislature.

Tang's statement echoed views of opposition party legislators that the Cabinet's difficulty in winning support for its proposed bills at the legislature is due to the fact that the DPP holds less than one-third of the legislative seats.

Local observers had warned that the new government's policy initiatives might be frustrated at the legislature as the DPP, the party the president belongs to, has a minority of the seats in the legislature, whereas the KMT, the former ruling party in Taiwan for the past five decades, dominates it.

But the premier also outlined solutions to ease tensions between the legislative and administrative branches. "What the Executive Yuan can do is to negotiate and communicate with opposition parties, trying to absorb suggestions from them before a policy is formulated, except in the case that these ideas are unacceptable to the ruling party," Tang said.

"But if the legislature refuses to give the government time for policy formulation and instead passes related bills ahead of policy formation, the public will judge for themselves who should be responsible for such an outcome," Tang said.

The premier thus urged opposition party legislators to play their parts and acknowledge their own limitations. After all, "if the legislators pass bills not supported by the public, lawmakers will be condemned by the people," he added.

But when asked by New Party lawmakers Fung Hu-hsiang (馮滬祥) and Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) whether he considered it a good idea to formulate a coalition government to solve the impasse faced by the new administration, Tang's answer was noncommittal.

"It's premature to say (言之過早). The new government was formulated just over a month ago. If a coalition government was formed now, national affairs would be paralyzed for at least six months," Tang said.