The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, which has proposed amendments to the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), turned coy yesterday about the need to push the amendment for the time being.
Asked for comment, KMT caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) voiced his concerns about “violence” used by participants at the rally organized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in protest against the visit of Association for the Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last week.
Chang said more public deliberation was needed before the legislature could address the caucus proposal on scrapping the requirement that event organizers gain police approval before holding a rally.
Called “evil” by activists, the law, which took effect under the KMT administration in 1988, has long been regarded as an instrument used by the government to control the people and curb their right to freedom of expression.
Since then, the DPP has described the law, along with the National Security Law (國家安全法) and the Civil Organization Law (人民團體法), as a “trinity” of relics from the Martial Law era that serve the interests of those in power.
Some KMT caucus members proposed earlier this year to require that event organizers only “report” planned rallies to police rather than seek approval from law-enforcement authorities.
A similar proposal was initiated by the People First Party (PFP) caucus in 2006 during the campaign led by former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) to oust then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
A PFP motion in May 2006 to allow the bill to skip the legislature’s preliminary review won the support of 107 pan-blue lawmakers and was opposed to by 92 pan-green legislators during a vote.
The bill never cleared the legislative floor.
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