The odds of holding an extraordinary legislative session to screen six priority bills, including the eight-year, NT$80 billion flood-control package, seem slim as the ruling and opposition parties are refusing to budge.
The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday vowed to be absent from a cross-party meeting scheduled for Monday to discuss the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) proposition to hold a special legislative session. The DPP caucus meanwhile pooh-poohed preconditions set by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus for the proposed session.
Caught in the middle, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"I don't have any preference over whether to hold a special legislative session because it hinges on the will of all caucuses," Wang told reporters after returning to the legislature from the KMT's Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday morning.
The PFP caucus yesterday reiterated its opposition to call a provisional legislative session, saying it is neither urgent nor necessary.
"We object to holding a special session during the summer recess and will not send a delegate to participate in Monday's inter-party talks," said Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠), director of the PFP caucus office and a former lawmaker.
Chin said that her caucus' objection to the session is a decision jointly made by the 34 PFP lawmakers during a caucus meeting in May.
"Unless they hold another meeting to void the resolution, nobody can change the joint decision," she said.
Chin said her party is also waiting for the DPP's apology for making a "groundless accusation" against PFP Chairman James Soong (
The PFP shut down the door to negotiations with the DPP caucus in May after its demand for an apology fell on deaf ears. The PFP is upset about a claim by President Chen Shui-bian (
Soong has filed a defamation lawsuit against the president.
Chin said that her caucus might support the flood-fighting plan if it were earmarked as a regular annual budget rather than a special budget.
"We would not cut a cent if the DPP government earmarked the NT$80 billion budget in next year's annual budget and sent in the budget request along with a thorough and comprehensive plan in September," she said.
Chin also called on the KMT caucus to be consistent in its stance on the provisional legislative session and keep to a previous promise to reject it.
"We don't know who to trust anymore, the big caucus whip or the little one?" she said.
The "big" caucus whip refers to KMT legislator and executive director of the KMT's Central Policy Committee Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), a supporter of Wang and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰). The "little" caucus whip alludes to KMT whip Chen Chieh (陳杰), who is a supporter of KMT chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
While Tseng objects to the special session, Chen Chieh agreed to consider holding the session under three preconditions: the government has to offer a public apology for its fruitless flood-control efforts over the past five years, to guarantee that the flood-control package will successfully solve the nation's long-standing flooding problems and to discuss only the flood-fighting plan during the proposed extraordinary session.
Calling the KMT's request for an apology "ridiculous," DPP caucus whip Jao Yung-ching (
Responding to the KMT's split stance on the matter, Jao called on Wang to convince his colleagues to support the session.
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