The Legislative Yuan should improve its inter-party consultative mechanism and raise the minimum number of legislators needed to form a caucus in order to put an end to chaos in the legislature, an opposition lawmaker said yesterday.
Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), convener of the PFP legislative caucus, said outdated and unreasonable legislative regulations are to blame for the legislature's chaos and low operational efficiency.
"To improve the situation, the regulations governing the formation of party caucuses in the legislative assembly should be revised to cap the rapid increase of those groups," Chou said.
Under the current rules, five like-minded legislators can form a caucus in the legislature, which is far lower than the minimum figure required in other countries.
For instance, the minimum number is 5 percent of the total number of legislators in Germany, at least 15 lawmakers in France and 20 legislators in South Korea.
In Taiwan's legislature, six political parties and groups are currently eligible to send representatives to attend inter-party consultations.
The six groups are the ruling DPP, the KMT, the PFP, the New Party, the Non-Partisan Alliance and the Cross-Party Alliance.
At present, an individual lawmaker must muster the support of at least 30 colleagues to present a legislative bill for discussion in the assembly, but political parties and alliances are exempt from this requirement and can freely initiate bills.
"And this is the root cause of disorder and chaos in the legislature," PFP legislative whip Chou claimed, adding that the legislature should raise the minimum number of legislators needed to form a political alliance to 5 percent of the total or at least 11 members.
"By so doing, we may be able to limit the proliferation of legislative caucuses and prevent a handful of lawmakers from sabotaging the rules of the game and hindering the smooth operation of the assembly," Chou explained.
In addition, Chou said the legislature should also revise current regulations to prevent any single legislator from blocking the assignment of a bill to the steering committee for inclusion into a meeting's agenda or to relevant standing committees for a first reading.
Moreover, Chou said, the legislature should also set a deadline for the legislative caucuses of ruling and opposition parties to forge a consensus on some controversial bills.
"If they cannot reach a consensus within the deadline, those bills should be put up for a vote in the legislative plenary session," he suggested.
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