President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is considering bringing to life a plan he hatched before last December's legislative elections that he hopes will bring an end to standoffs in the legislature.
A close aide to the president said yesterday that Chen was considering inviting opposition lawmakers to join his "cross-party alliance for national stabilization," which would give the DPP a majority in the Legislative Yuan.
"The two major opposition parties -- the KMT and the PFP -- insist on adopting a strategy of boycotting the ruling DPP in the Legislative Yuan," the aide told the Taipei Times. "And the `pan-blue' team's hostile attitude toward the president has left no room for rational legislative debate."
The aide said that Chen worries that such a situation, which is getting worse, may force all political parties to waste more resources in attacking each other.
"The KMT still does not seem to understand what the people of the country expect even after it lost the legislative elections last December," the aide said. "People want for all parties to undertake political reform and stop these vicious political struggles."
To form a majority in the Legislative Yuan the DPP would need at least 113 seats. However, the party has only 89, which, when added to the 13 seats of DPP ally, the TSU, leaves it 11 lawmakers shy of a majority.
The aide said that many KMT lawmakers would like to cooperate with the DPP to stabilize national affairs rather than ally with the PFP to paralyze Chen's administration.
"Therefore, President Chen may consider personally inviting these KMT lawmakers to cooperate with the DPP, the TSU and some other independent lawmakers to create the `cross-party alliance for national stabilization' in next legislative session," the aide said.
Secretary-General to the President Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) confirmed that Chen had mentioned the idea of forming the alliance recently, following the confirmation votes for nominees to the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan, when he said the legislature had become a circus.
"However, the president has not asked any staff member to push for it for the time being," Secretary-General Chen said.
Meanwhile, a DPP legislative caucus leader told the Taipei Times that the KMT lawmakers and independent lawmakers who supported the DPP and voted for Yao Chia-wen (
"After the `pan-blue' team successfully blocked five nominees during Thursday's confirmation voting," said the DPP lawmaker, who was in charge of the campaign to get the nominees confirmed, "President Chen immediately made phone calls to some KMT lawmakers to urge them to keep their promises to support Yao."
Chen Chin-ting (陳進丁), an independent lawmaker who joined the KMT's legislative caucus, was one of the lawmakers who ignored the KMT's order and voted for Yao. He told reporters yesterday that he plans to organize an "independent caucus" in the next session to seek a strategic relationship with the ruling DPP.
"I hope the KMT will expel me as soon as possible if the party can prove that I violated the party's order," Chen said when answering question from reporters. "Otherwise, other politicians will despise the KMT."
Chen Chin-ting said that the future independent caucus may have at least 13 lawmakers, including nine independent lawmakers and four KMT lawmakers.
RSS