Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) was blocked from taking the podium in the legislature yesterday, for the second time in 36 days, and could face a more difficult situation as the three opposition parties plan to declare him persona non grata.
Lawmakers of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan Solidarity Union and People First Party (PFP) yesterday joined forces to boycott the legislature’s question-and-answer session with the premier to protest what they called the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration’s “arbitrary” move to push ahead with relaxing the ban on imports of US beef containing ractopamine residues.
Before the session began, the opposition lawmakers occupied the floor with various banners and posters, demanding revocation of the decision made on Thursday when 17 amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) was pushed through the legislature’s Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
A large poster was placed on the ground calling President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration a “bandit government” that had launched a “sneak attack against the people” and behaved “lawlessly” to force through an easing of the ban, while dozens of other posters — saying that the decision had been made “not in accordance with the procedural rules” and was “invalid” — were placed on the council table.
KMT Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) announced at the committee meeting on Thursday that the amendments had been taken out of the committee’s hands and referred for cross-party negotiations after a nearly day-long boycott staged by the opposition, who refused to discuss the issue until the Cabinet proposes its own amendment.
The move would allow the KMT, which controls a majority of seats, to schedule a vote a month afterward to secure the legal basis for easing the ban, despite all 17 amendments, initiated by lawmakers across party lines, being against the use of ractopamine.
Photo: Ting Wei-chie, Taipei Times
The Ma administration intended to conditionally lift the ban, based on the principle of “allowing a safe level of ractopamine in beef, a separation of the permits for importing beef and pork, clear labeling for beef imports and exclusion of imports of internal organs.”
“If President Ma and Premier Chen continue to obstinately refuse to present a Cabinet amendment, we will propose declaring Sean Chen persona non grata to bar him from entering the legislature,” DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
PFP caucus whip Thomas Lee (李桐豪) said the party resolutely opposed Tsai’s decision at the committee meeting, and urged the government to propose its own amendment and take responsibility for its policy.
“If [Tsai’s] decision is not revoked, it would set a bad precedent that the convener of a committee can announce whatever decision he likes without deliberation and let the majority party vote to pass the bills on the floor,” Lee said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the way Tsai handled the committee meeting “somehow did not conform to the procedural rules.”
However, Wang also spoke up for Tsai, saying Tsai had only acted as he did because he had been unable to run the meeting smoothly.
On Tuesday, Chen told the legislative session that the Cabinet would complete in 10 days an ongoing review of an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation that would see a massive overhaul of the food safety management system on more than 60 articles, rather than just the two articles regarding the use of ractopamine.
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