Committee decision provokes anger

While it is hard to finger which party initiated the idea to have the committee dropped, PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said the issue first came to a head when the KMT wished to incorporate all of its six vice chairpersons -- in addition to the party chairman and party secretary-general -- into the committee, which was originally only supposed to be composed of six people from each party.

The committee had been aborted to settle the issue, Liu said.

Liu also opposes the idea of having the eight panels substitute for the policy-making committee noting that such a move will only make issues more complicated.

"If media speculation is true, then the issue over party members vying for certain positions will remain whether or not there is a policy-making committee or joint panels," Apollo Chen said.

"The greatest problem facing the KMT-PFP alliance is not [infighting] itself but the intention to sweep the problem under the carpet and pretend that it doesn't exist," Apollo Chen said.