As if the fracas caused by the recently signed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) at the Legislative Yuan were not bad enough, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus is set to plug another controversial bill into the agenda of the next provisional legislative session next month.
One day after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) expressed hope that the bill, which will entail revisions to three acts to allow Chinese students to study in local colleges, will be passed by the legislature next month, KMT lawmakers said yesterday they would put it on the agenda of the provisional sitting.
The Ma administration has pushed for the opening of Taiwanese colleges to Chinese students, promising the policy will neither cost local students’ chances of being admitted to colleges nor undermine their chances of winning scholarships, while Chinese students will not be allowed to stay after graduation and will not be allowed to work in Taiwan.
However, the bill got snarled up at the legislature because of the KMT caucus’ refusal to write these limitations into acts as demanded by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus.
The KMT caucus said doing so would decrease the flexibility of the policy, which is supposed to be reviewed one year after taking effect, laying the groundwork for more brawling at the legislature.
The bill was put on hold at the end of the last regular legislative session for a one-month cooling down period as the two parties failed to sort out their differences.
The last fight in the legislature took place at a provisional session on Thursday last week to debate the ECFA and was triggered when the KMT caucus rejected a DPP caucus demand that the pact should be reviewed article by article.
The DPP caucus’ attempts to filibuster the session led to a free-for-all between the lawmakers of the two parties in which one KMT lawmaker and one DPP lawmaker was injured.
The KMT caucus is determined to ratify the trade pact in the next sitting to be held next month at the KMT’s behest.
That sitting is set to be even more explosive if the KMT caucus adds to it the bill to open local colleges to Chinese students.
DPP caucus whip Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said yesterday that her party would not play into the hands of the KMT by threatening to resort to violent filibuster tactics, but she added that KMT lawmakers should know better than to follow the president’s war cry.
“We have made our stance on the issue clear and it is up to the KMT whether to opt for fighting or talking,” Kuan said.
She also accused Ma of “trampling on the legislature” by trying to control KMT lawmakers.
Noting that a just-concluded forum between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party agreed to push for the implementation of the ECFA and the accreditation of each side’s diplomas, Kuan said Ma is obviously trying to implement the conclusions of the forum in an unconstitutional manner.
In addition to damaging his own image, Kuan said, Ma had justified the opposition’s criticism that he is Beijing’s puppet in Taiwan.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) refused to speculate on whether the KMT caucus’ decision is pouring gasoline on the fire, saying only that he hopes all bills would be debated peacefully in the legislature.
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