Opposition boycotts meeting after NSB head fails to show

Because of National Security Bureau (NSB) director Tsai Tsao-ming's (蔡朝明) failure to show up, lawmakers of the opposition camp yesterday boycotted a scheduled discussion of draft laws for the monitoring of the country's intelligence system at a joint meeting of the defense and organic laws committees.

The move, jointly taken by lawmakers with the KMT and PFP, was strongly condemned by DPP lawmakers, who said it was irrational and incomprehensible.

"It is incredible to see that the ruling DPP is pushing hard for the legislation of intelligence monitoring laws while the opposition parities do not buy it," said DPP lawmaker Lin Cho-shui (林濁水), a member on the organic laws committee. "Taiwan is probably the only country in the world to have such a phenomenon."

Another DPP lawmaker, Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), a member of the defense committee, said the opposition parties shouldn't have boycotted yesterday's meeting of the defense and organic laws committees just because of NSB director Tsai's failure to attend.

Tsai, now on a trip to the US, left the country last week before he was invited to attend yesterday's meeting at the legislature.

Chen said he worried the opposition camp might continue to boycott the next meeting of the defense and organic laws committees tomorrow. The meeting has the same purpose of discussing draft laws for intelligence monitoring.

"This week is the last week of the legislature for discussions of draft laws at committees. If the opposition camp continues the boycott, the much-expected legislation for intelligence monitoring laws is sure to be delayed until the next session of the legislature," Chen said.

The two DPP lawmakers made the remarks yesterday at a press conference they called at the legislature after the joint meeting of the defense and organic laws committees failed to take place.

They said the DPP is eager to legislate intelligence laws as soon as possible and that the effort was launched at the request of the opposition camp after the high-profile leak of NSB classified documents to the press earlier.

"The opposition camp does not seem to appreciate our effort. They first complain about Tsai's failure to show up. They also find fault with the NSB for not presenting its own version of a draft law for intelligence monitoring," they said.

"The NSB is a governmental agency. Is it reasonable to ask it to make a law to subject itself to monitoring by lawmakers?" they said.