A coalition of private political groups yesterday made a last-ditch call on the opposition pan-blue alliance, asking them to refrain from passing the controversial "cross-strait peace advancement" bill, scheduled for a showdown at the legislature today.
"We strongly oppose the bill because it is unnecessary and unconstitutional," said Hawang Shiow-duan (黃秀端), chairwoman of the Taipei Society and chairperson of the department of political science at Soochow University.
If the bill passes the legislature, she said, the opposition parties will be running the risk of shooting themselves in the foot if they insist on enacting a law for the sake of their parties' interests rather than those of the public and the country.
"The pan-blue camp might want to take into consideration that they may someday become minority parties in the legislature," she said. "What are they going to do then?"
Hawang made the remarks during a news conference held yesterday morning to voice the coalition's opposition to the attempt by the pan-blue camp, which enjoys a slim majority in the legislature, to pass the "peace advancement bill."
Hawang said that the piece of legislation is not necessary because the duties specified for the "cross-strait peace committee," which would be established under the bill in proportion to the number of seats each party holds in the legislature, are already carried out by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation.
Under the proposed bill, the committee would be authorized to conduct 11 kinds of exchange with China, including negotiating issues such as cross-strait direct transportation links, a cross-strait free-trade zone, a cross-strait demilitarized zone, a cross-strait peace agreement and a cross-strait summit.
The committee would also strive to have China and Taiwan each send a representative to participate in non-political international organizations.
Hawang also criticized the bill for empowering the Legislative Yuan to earmark and review the budget for the committee.
The Constitution mandates that the Executive Yuan is the government body that proposes government budgets for the review of the legislature.
"It is a clear violation of the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan," Hawang said.
Allen Houng (洪裕宏), chairman of the Constitution Reform Alliance, said it baffled him as to why the pan-blue camp aspires to pass an unconstitutional piece of legislation.
"The only logical explanation I can come up with is that they think that they, as the majority in the legislature, should call the shots and run the country," he said.
"If that is the case, I call on the pan-blue alliance to support constitutional reform and change the government system to either a presidential or a parliamentary system," he said.
Houng also expressed concern over the People First Party's (PFP) aggressive approach to push for the passage of the bill today.
The PFP caucus has vowed to team up with its ally, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to push the bill through "regardless of the cost," including possibly violent disruptions to legislative proceedings.
Huang Yu-lin (
He also expressed his foundation's opposition to setting the "1992 consensus" and "one China" policy as premises for cross-strait talks.
Although his foundation supports signing a cross-strait peace agreement with China, Huang said that such an accord must be ratified by the people.
The people must also have the final say on inking or establishing cross-strait direct transportation, a cross-strait free-trade zone, a cross-strait demilitarized zone, a cross-strait peace agreement or joint participation in non-political international organizations, he said.
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