PFP opposes ruling party plan to reduce membership of legislative group

The PFP is opposed to the DPP's proposal to lower the number of individual lawmakers who make up a committee to advance legislative reforms, a PFP lawmaker said yesterday.

Chiu Yi (邱毅), deputy convener of the PFP legislative caucus, made the remarks on the eve of a ruling and opposition party caucus meeting to discuss the DPP proposal, under which the required number of Legislative Yuan Constitutional Amendment Committee (CAC) members would be lowered to one-fifth of the lawmakers in the Legislative Yuan.

According to CAC organizational rules, the committee in question must be formed by half of the members of the legislature plus one.

"The PFP is against the DPP proposal since reducing the `threshold' for the number of CAC members is a serious matter," Chiu said.

He also criticized the ruling party as intending to expand political bickering by making the proposal.

PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) called on the ruling and opposition parties to be serious about amending the Constitution as this is a far-reaching political move.

"We should not revise the Constitution just to be seen making amendments," Liu said, adding that the nation's constitutional system has been seriously undermined by consecutive revisions which he said had been conducted simply for the sake of change.

He also said that the PFP caucus will not endorse any bills that it perceives as being purely politically motivated or aimed at winning votes in the next year's presidential election, so that the nation's constitutional system and spirit is not sabotaged.

The DPP Central Standing Committee decided last Tuesday to push for the downsizing of the legislature in the new legislative session that opened Feb. 25.

The committee, which is the policy-making body of the DPP, concluded that the ruling party's caucus at the Legislative Yuan should move to set up a Constitution-revision committee to press ahead with the party's campaign promise in the 2001 legislative elections to cut the number of the legislators from the current 225 to 150.

In order to push through the constitutional amendment, the committee said in its resolution that the DPP should seek the support of private groups to instill the necessity of the move into the mind of the public.