DPP blasts blues' `surrender' bill

Police officers yesterday carry a petitioner outside the Legislative Yuan who was demanding to meet with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou while the legislature was in chaos over the National Communications Commission bill and cross-strait peace advancement bill. PHOTO: LO TEH-PEI, TAIPEI TIMES

The governing party went on the offensive against an opposition bill which would enshrine the "one China" principle as part of Taiwanese law and would establish a partisan committee to conduct relations with China, effectively cutting out the executive branch from cross-strait relations.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday blasted the pan-blue camp's cross-strait "peace advancement" bill, saying the bill negates Taiwan's de facto sovereignty, restricts the right of the Taiwanese people to self-determination and undermines the country's constitutional system.

Su made the remarks after violent battles in the Legislative Yuan yesterday over the proposed national communications commission (NCC) bill, which is designed to set up a media watchdog agency.

Su said that the pan-blue camp's leaders had neglected the nation's outcry against China's "Anti-Secession" Law, which Beijing passed in March.

The visits to China by these pan-blue camp leaders helped China to relieve international pressure and denunciation from the international community following the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law, Su said.

Pan-blue legislators yesterday clench their fists in taekwondo uniforms, posing in front of the media outside the legislature to display their ``determination to defend the dignity of the legislature and ensure cross-strait peace.'' PHOTO: CNA

Half a year later, the pan-blue camp is proposing the cross-strait peace advancement bill, which echoes the Anti-Secession Law, Su said. He added that if the law was passed, it would definitely undermine the peace in the Taiwan Strait and endanger Taiwan's sovereignty and democracy.

"Therefore, the DPP has to show our stern opposition to the [peace advancement] bill using three points on behalf of 23 million people of Taiwan," Su said, speaking before the party's weekly central standing committee meeting yesterday afternoon.

Taiwan Solidarity Union legislators yesterday appear in the legislature with military uniforms and helmets and clench their fists to show their ``determination to defend Taiwan.'' PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES

First, the pan-blue camp's bill is a "surrender bill," because it attempts to legalize the "one China" principle and the so-called "1992 consensus," turning them into domestic law, which would blur the government's legitimacy and negate Taiwan's sovereignty, Su said.

Second, if the bill is passed, any statement or action that opposes the "one China" principle will become illegal, thus restricting the hard-earned freedom of the people of Taiwan.

Third, if the pan-blue camp does take advantage of its majority and forces passage of the bill, then the president's power to conduct national defense and diplomacy will be usurped, thus sabotaging the constitutional system, Su said.

"The DPP will try to stop the pan-blue camp from exploiting its majority to attain its endless political blackmail of the people of Taiwan," Su said.

Su also blasted the proposed NCC bill.

"The pan-blue camp ignores the fact that the NCC committee members are supposed to be neutral and independent, and they are insisting that committee members should be appointed according to the seats in each political party," Su said.

"It will introduce political confrontation into an independent organization, and thus political parties will be able to control the mass media," Su said. "If this happens, the reform of the mass media will never succeed."