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INSIGHT: Legislature ends its sixth session with little done

Serious confrontation between the pan-green and pan-blue camps was a principal feature that marred the sixth legislature, which ended its sixth and final session on Friday.

The sixth legislature, which concluded a week early to allow incumbent legislators more time to engage in campaign activities for the Jan. 12 legislative elections, set various records over the last three years, including three failed attempts to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

It opened in early 2005 in an atmosphere of extreme mutual distrust, with the pan-blue alliance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) convinced of the illegality of the 2004 presidential election result.

slim victory

Shortly after Chen won re-election by a slim margin, the pan-blue presidential ticket of then KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) filed lawsuits to challenge the outcome, claiming that Chen staged an election-eve shooting that slightly injured him and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), to win sympathy votes in the hotly contested election.

Bickering and confrontation stalled business in the legislature from that point on.

One of the most conspicuous was the boycott by the pan-blue alliance of the list of Control Yuan members nominated by the president for legislative confirmation, leaving the nation's highest watchdog empty after its members' term expired on Jan. 31, 2005.

The opposition attempted to recall the president three times in the latter half of last year, but failed each time as the move required the consent of two-thirds of the 225-member legislature, in which the pan-blue camp only commanded a slim majority.

Conflict between the two camps also resulted in a budget stalemate. While the law stipulates that the budget for the central government should be passed one month before the start of a new fiscal year, the 2007 budget did not pass until June 15.

The budget was repeatedly stalled because of conflict over the legislative agenda, with the KMT pushing for the review first of the controversial draft Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法) -- much to the Democratic Progressive Party's consternation.

condemnation

After the fourth session of the legislature ended in pandemonium, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) issued a rare written statement condemning the DPP legislative caucus.

The non-stop conflict took its toll on the operation of the legislature, which had to organize provisional sessions just to get some work done. The just-concluded legislature convened three provisional sessions, on par with the record in the fifth legislature.

But compared with the fifth legislature, which passed 611 bills, the just-concluded legislature passed only 498 bills, a new low for the past three legislatures. The confrontation between the ruling and the opposition lawmakers is entirely to blame for this dismal performance, analysts said.
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