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Soong slams KMT for indecisiveness

People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday lashed out at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for dragging its feet on its proposal to push for a no-confidence vote against Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

"The motion requires only half of the legislative votes to pass. If the motion fails, it must be because our ally let it slip and that would be very disappointing," Soong said yesterday during a lunch meeting with party lawmakers in the Legislative Yuan.

Lower threshold

As stipulated in the Constitution, a no-confidence vote against the premier may be initiated with only one-third of the legislative vote. Unlike the high threshold for a presidential recall, the no-confidence vote only requires the approval of half of the legislature.

If approved by a simple majority, the premier must resign from office within 10 days and may request that the president dismiss the legislature.

While the PFP has stuck to its plan of toppling the Cabinet and having the president dismiss the legislature before proposing a second presidential recall, the KMT has said that it is carefully "planning before making any move."

Soong noted that as the recall motion received 119 affirmative votes, the no-confidence vote would surely pass the legislature with the support of the KMT and independent legislators.

"The PFP is not scared even if we have only one legislator left. What is the KMT afraid of?" Soong said.

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday reiterated that the KMT would not make any immediate move before carefully studying the issue.

"The KMT's view on the issue has been consistent. We've set up a team to study the no-confidence vote," Ma said.

Ma said the party welcomed the PFP to discuss the issue with the team, but said he would not take the initiative to visit Soong.

"Since the job to initiate the vote is on the legislative caucus, the two parties' caucuses should do the talking," he added.

Not ripe

In response to both Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun' s invitations to hold a cross-party meeting, Soong yesterday echoed Ma's comment, saying the time was not ripe for a cross-party discussion.

"Unless the DPP apologizes to the people and distances itself from the president, I will not meet with DPP officials," he said.

Soong further said that the KMT should not befriend former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) "before he has explained his involvement in black-gold politics."

Meanwhile, Ma yesterday paid a visit to a group of students who were staging a sit-in protest against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in front of the CKS Memorial Hall, applauding their determination and efforts to demand the ouster of a "corrupt president."

The protest was started by students from National Taiwan University last week.
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