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Pan-blue `peace' bill moves ahead

Cashing in on its numerical advantage, the legislature's pan-blue-dominated Procedure Committee yesterday placed the controversial "cross-strait peace advancement" bill on the legislative agenda as the first bill for discussion at next Tuesday's plenary session.

The bill, which passed the committee in an 18-14 vote, would create a special committee to handle cross-strait affairs that would assume the current functions of the Mainland Affairs Council and Straits Exchange Foundation.

Pan-green critics object to the bill because it would enshrine the "one China" concept into law, and usurp the executive branch's constitutional power over cross-strait policymaking.

The Procedure Committee's move yesterday set the stage for another emotional showdown in the legislature on Tuesday.

TSU caucus whip David Huang (黃適卓) said that debate on the bill was bound to lead to confrontation, and urged fruitlessly that caucuses reach consensus on the issue before sending it to the legislative floor.

Making the bill law would not be in the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) interest, Huang argued, because the public would conclude that the People First Party is leading the KMT by the nose and getting it to cooperate with China's Communist Party to oppose pro-independence forces.

Meanwhile, the stymied arms procurement bill failed to pass the committee for the 35th time, despite Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Winston Dang's (陳重信) plea that the pan-blue camp put national security before partisan interest. President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) Control Yuan nominations were also blocked.

The committee also rejected the DPP's proposal to invite the president to brief the legislature on the arms procurement plan, and nixed three different versions of a party assets bill presented by the DPP, Taiwan Solidarity Union and Executive Yuan -- each designed to strip the KMT's of its ill-gotten gains.

The pan-blue-controlled committee also rejected a bill proposed by the Executive Yuan to establish a "clean government bureau" under the Ministry of Justice, saying that it is redundant because there is already an Investigation Bureau under the ministry.

In one rare example of cross-party harmony, the committee passed a joint resolution made by all caucuses supporting the president's selection of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to stand in for him at next month's APEC leader's summit in Busan, South Korea.

That cross-party resolution comes despite the fierce opposition to Wang's visit from China, as well as resistance from South Korea, the host country for the summit.

KMT Legislator Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) proposed shelving a proposal to condemn Premier Frank Shieh (謝長廷) for the riot by Thai workers hired to build Kaohsiung City's mass rapid transit system, which the KMT said has hurt the nation's international image.

Tseng said that it was useless to condemn the premier now, as the truth of the matter is still gradually coming to light.
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