The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday proposed scrapping the "national-affairs forum" in the Legislative Yuan, which it said had become a playhouse for lawmakers.
In a panel discussion at its headquarters attended by scholars and TSU legislators-elect, party officials said that the session had become a show stage for legislators and its existence only highlighted the fact that the legislature is the major source of chaos in society.
The national-affairs forum was set up seven years ago to prevent lawmakers from paralyzing the legislative agenda.
Before the affairs forum's establishment, then-opposition DPP lawmakers frequently made long speeches in the legislature to comment on current affairs, attack government officials or appeal to supporters.
Often, the session would last long enough to cripple the day's agenda, with government officials forced to sit through speeches not related to them.
TSU Secretary-General Shu Chin-chiang (蘇進強) said that once the new session starts in February, the party's 13 newly-elected legislators would solicit endorsements from other parties to end the system he said had greatly tarnished the reputation of the country's highest lawmaking body.
The forum, held from 9am to 10am every Tuesday and Friday, has frequently degenerated into mudslinging. Lawmakers will frequently use props and even sing in the three minutes they are given to air their views on any subject -- views that are constitutionally protected from slander laws.
The most recent conflict at the forum occurred last week, when DPP lawmaker Lin Chung-mo (林重謨) criticized Sisy Chen (陳文茜), the incoming independent lawmaker and a talk show host, for attacking the government. Lin said she sounded like a prostitute commenting on the sex industry when she criticized President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration on her talk show.
Several DPP lawmakers proposed ending the session after the incident took place.
Shu said the TSU supported the proposal on the grounds that the public was fed up with political shows that have done nothing to improve national affairs.
If the session could was not halted soon, he said, it should be suspended at least for one legislative session and restarted after the rules governing it could be amended.
Even if the session must continue, he suggested that the media not report on it so that politicians would no longer regard it as an opportunity to show off.
But not everyone agrees that the forum is a waste of time.
"Further discussion is crucial before we decide whether to abolish this mechanism," KMT legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (徐中雄) told the Taipei Times yesterday.
"I think the imprudent speeches by lawmakers during the forum is mainly related to their individual sense of ethics rather than any flaw in the mechanism," Hsu said.
Chou Wen-lai (周萬來), head of the Legislative Yuan's conference department, which sets the legislature's agenda, suggested that scrapping the forum would result in the same problems as before it was set up.
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