Eve of new session brings legislators' vows for unity

Opposition legislators said yesterday that they are willing to cooperate with the ruling DPP to ratify bills that will promote economic development but are against bundling the bills to speed up their ratification.

People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus convener Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) said that despite his party's support, the Executive Yuan should still provide a priority list of the bills to be reviewed instead of asking the Legislative Yuan to "swallow everything."

He said that the lawmaking process carries with it specific procedures and a certain degree of demand for quality.

At a summit of political party leaders held on Saturday, different parties agreed to give priority to the ratification of 20 bills realted to measures proposed by the Economic Development Advisory Conference last month and 14 bills related to Taiwan's impending entry into the WTO.

The summit marked further attempts at inter-party cooperation between the nation's political parties.

PFP legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said that a joint statement of party leaders issued after the Saturday meeting was a sign that ruling and opposition parties were sincere about carrying out the various conclusions arrived at the advisory conference.

Liu said the DPP should take the lead by being specific about the order of importance of the bills and not give the lawmakers a difficult time over less urgent bills.

Even DPP lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) has expressed concern about the "inappropriateness" of "quantity-over-quality" lawmaking.

In an attempt to forge a consensus on the matter, DPP lawmakers plan to invite opposition party members to a meeting today to discuss the possibility of bundling together some of the 410 priority bills.

The new session of the Legislative Yuan is scheduled to open tomorrow, but it will go into temporary recess on Nov. 1 as lawmakers prepare for this December's legislative elections.

The draft for the 2002 fiscal budget is also awaiting legislative review during the upcoming session.

KMT legislator Lee Cheng-chong (李正宗) said that his party is in favor of improving coordination between the ruling and opposition parties to speed up the review of bills.

He said that the 146 bills related to the streamlining and reduction in size of the Taiwan provincial government can be considered for bundling, but that another 173 bills related to the Administrative Procedure Laws must be carefully reviewed instead of bundled because many of the bills involve peoples' rights and duties and are the source of "much public complaint."

About the 102 bills that the various party caucuses have already discussed, Lee said that the Legislative Yuan can only try to ratify as many as possible before the legislature is adjourned on Nov. 1 in preparation for the December legislative elections.