As the legislature finally approved the government's budget for this year on Friday, political observers yesterday said that by attaching resolutions to the annual budget the legislature is in violation of the government's authority, adding that this could serve as a precedent for the Council of Grand Justices to serve as an arbiter between the executive and legislative branches in Taiwan's democracy.
"If opposition parties continue to boycott the government's policy initiatives as they do now, they'll definitely face another setback in the presidential election like they did in the legislative elections two years ago," said Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), a political observer and editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
During the 2001 legislative elections, the KMT, the largest opposition party, became the second largest party in the legislature after the DPP, thanks to voters, overtook its previous lead.
If the KMT continues to give the DPP-led government a hard time in the legislature, Chin said, the electorate will use their votes to show their discontent in the presidential election.
"By then, it doesn't matter that much how bad the economy is or how poorly the DPP has ruled. All they see will be how the nation's development has been hampered by the opposition parties," he said.
Wu Tung-yeh (吳東野), a political scientist at National Chengchi University, expressed the same opinion.
"Opposition parties may have won the battles now, but they may lose the war in the long run," he said. "As the presidential election is drawing near, it's understandable that all parties are vying for the support of the electorate. But I don't think what the opposition parties have been doing delivers any positive impact on the election."
The Legislative Yuan on Friday approved the government's budget for this year but it did not go undoctored. Resolutions demanding an immediate stop to the four-month old increase in national health insurance premiums and co-payment rates were attached.
The department introduced the current fee scheme last September, saying it could not keep the health insurance program afloat otherwise.
But opposition legislators argued that the government should seek first to crack down on irregularities involving medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies.
Opposition lawmakers also managed to push through a resolution freezing the funds of the National Health Insurance Bureau for the issue of "smart" health cards, pending further legislative review.
Many lawmakers have voiced apprehension that patients' medical data may be stolen from the computer system or directly from the cards themselves.
Also frozen was a NT$42.3 million fund to build a national park from 53,000 hectares of cypress forest in northern Taiwan, mainly inhabited by Atayal Aborigines. The resolution requires that the fund cannot be made available until the national park bill becomes law.
The draft bill, which is awaiting review and approval at the legislature, would allow the setup of a consultation committee if half of the park area covers an Aboriginal administrative zone.
Aborigines would also comprise half of the park's administrative management team and two thirds of the park's policing team in a bid to have more Aborigines participate in the management of the park.
Despite the passage of the annual budget, the firestorm between the legislative and executive branches seems to have started anew as the ruling party is planning to seek an interpretation on the Constitution from the Council of Grand Justices to rule on the legality of the resolution.
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