A legislative watchdog yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of repeatedly blocking discussions over the cancelation of construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), during meetings of the legislature’s Procedure Committee.
Citizen Congress Watch chairman Shih Shin-min (施信民) said that the Procedure Committee is an important battleground to determine if a bill should be reviewed by lawmakers, but that the KMT caucus is obstructing the opposition parties proposing a bill on the power plant.
Shih said the committee had overstepped its authority by making itself more important than the Legislative Assembly.
Shih added that the KMT had more than once halted the review of several bills, including canceling the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and some legislative reforms.
The committee does not allow different opinions to be expressed and fails to operate transparently, he said, adding that it should put a discussion on a nuclear-free homeland bill on the agenda of the next committee meeting.
The watchdog named KMT legislators Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍), Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) and Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) as the “iron triangle” preventing the anti-nuclear bill from being included on the agenda.
In response, KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said that the government has invested much in the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and the previous DPP administration had done so as well.
“The DPP now comes out and says that the construction should be canceled,” Lin said. “This shows the issue is really a political maneuver.”
Lin added that some of the proposed amendments to acts may be redundant or similar, and these technical issues should be addressed by the Procedure Committee.
“Many of the KMT’s bills have been blocked by the DPP,” Lin said. “It has really no grounds to point the finger at others.”
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