Legislators prepare for showdown on proposed state-of-the-nation address

The ruling and opposition parties have begun mobilizing lawmakers for what has been described as a showdown in the upcoming legislative plenary session tomorrow to vote on whether to invite President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to deliver the first-ever state-of-the-nation address to the Legislative Yuan.

The TSU, which submitted the resolution bill but later attempted to revoke it, failed to keep the bill off the plenary session's agenda after a vote at the legislative rules committee Friday.

TSU deputy legislative whip Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said that his party's original intention was to set up a constitutional norm, not to ask the president to report to the Legislative Yuan on any particular issues.

Chen said that the timing and method of a state-of-the-nation address to the legislature must be governed by a set of legal measures that are currently lacking. The content of the address should be decided by the president himself, he added.

Meanwhile, opposition KMT legislator Lin Yi-shi (林益世) said that his legislative caucus would like to ask the president questions. However, if President Chen does not agree to answer questions, his caucus will not insist on the request, Lin added.

No Taiwanese president has ever delivered a report to the Legislative Yuan. Such a report was in the past normally delivered to the National Assembly, which is now a non-standing body.

The amended ROC Constitution allows for the Legislative Yuan to invite the president to deliver a report, but the previous legislature did not call for such an invitation because of concerns that such a move might blur the checks-and-balances relationship between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan as well as because the political parties believed it was meaningless to listen to a presidential report without being able to field questions.

TSU legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) initiated the state-of-the-nation proposal in February, arguing that because the president is elected by the people, the public has a right to know what the president has achieved and what his future plans are.

"The president wields power bestowed upon him by the public so he has to shoulder responsibility by reporting to the highest national assembly," he said.

Su considered it inappropriate for the president to promulgate his ideas on unofficial occasions such as during interviews with the media or when receiving guests.