The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday made a last-ditch effort to get opposition parties to agree to holding an extraordinary legislative session to tackle and finally pass six priority bills, including the arms procurement package and an eight-year, NT$80 billion flood-fighting project.
"It is time to test the political wisdom and ability of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)," DPP legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
"It is a major challenge for him to convince the KMT caucus to change its mind and agree to the special session," he said.
The KMT caucus has said that they would not consider agreeing to a provisional legislative session unless the government offers a public apology for its flood-control efforts that have borne no fruit over the past five years.
Nor would they consider endorsing the session if the flood-control package cannot guarantee success in solving the nation's long-standing flooding problems.
They would not want to discuss any "unrelated" bills, except for the flood-fighting bill during the special session, if there were any.
While Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is scheduled to call a cross-party meeting today to discuss the DPP caucus' proposition to hold a special session, the People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus has vowed not to attend today's meeting unless the DPP apologizes for making a "groundless accusation" against PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Their objection to the special session is also the result of a resolution passed by the caucus' 34 lawmakers in May. Unless caucus members meet again to scrap the resolution, they said that they would continue to honor the joint decision.
PFP caucus whip Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) yesterday reiterated his caucus' opposition to the special legislative session and said that his caucus will not attend today's inter-party negotiations because the DPP has not yet offered an apology.
"Whether to hold an extraordinary legislative session has now become a political issue," Hsu said.
"I don't know why it is such a big deal for the president to apologize for something wrong he had done. It does nothing to ameliorate the [tense] political atmosphere if he continues to be this stubborn," he said.
KMT caucus whip Chen Chieh (
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip David Huang (
"If the government genuinely wants to solve the nation's flooding problems, they should come up with a better-thought-out plan so we'll know exactly what they plan to do," he said.
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