DPP tries to break NCC bill deadlock with concession

In a bid to break an impasse over how members of the proposed national communications commission (NCC) will be chosen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made a concession yesterday, proposing that a "review group" for recommending commission members be formed in accordance with the percentage of seats in the legislature held by each political party.

KMT's idea

William Lai (賴清德), secretary-general of the DPP legislative caucus, said the ad hoc "review group" borrows from the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) idea for selecting members of the Control Yuan, Examination Yuan and Judicial Yuan.

Since his proposal is based on the KMT's idea, Lai said the party and its pan-blue allies -- the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party -- have no reason to oppose it.

If the idea works, the nominees recommended by the multi-party "review group" would be selected by the premier for approval by the Legislative Yuan, Lai said.

The DPP, having made a concession over the long-stalled issue, said it hopes the opposition pan-blue alliance will reciprocate by giving up the KMT's intention of keeping the Broadcasting Corporation of China under its control.

Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), executive director of the KMT's Central Policy Committee, said the KMT's legislative caucus would not accept Lai's proposal, as the party still thinks that appointing NCC members proportionally, in line with each parties' representation in the legislature, is the best idea.

Both the KMT and PFP fear the government will try to "meddle" in the NCC's operations if its membership does not reflect the strength of each of the parties in the legislature.

Sun Ta-chien (孫大千), deputy convener of the PFP legislative caucus, said the opposition actually has been forced to adopt "the most stringent rules" to stop the government from interfering in NCC operations because the DPP government "has set too many examples of anti-democratic practices."

Pan-blue version

As an alternative, Sun said the opposition's version of rules on the NCC's composition excludes anyone from becoming a member who has ever held public office, a party job or even merely run for elected office on a party ticket.

He said that if the DPP cannot put forth a better proposal than the "review committee," a show-down vote in the legislature over the NCC bill will be unavoidable.

The Taiwan Solidarity Union opposes both the pan-blue alliance's party representation idea and the DPP's "review committee" idea, saying both ideas would cause "legislative intrusion in executive branch power," and create constitutional chaos.