Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) monopolized information during cross-caucus negotiations over committee seats, New Power Party (NPP) caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said yesterday.
Hsu said he called Ker twice when the party was negotiating, only to be told there was “no way” an exchange could be made, only learning on Wednesday night that there were several DPP legislators who would have been willing to make the exchange.
“This information was practically monopolized by [Ker] or else he knew about it, but chose to do nothing,” Hsu said, adding that the “information asymmetry” created an institutional “moral hazard.”
“If even a procedural issue like committee membership can develop in this way, should we participate in cross-caucus negotiations in the future?” he said, calling for future cross-caucus talks to avoid substantive negotiations over bills.
Committee membership lists have been a bone of contention between the two parties since the NPP failed to get its “wish list” of places during a drawing earlier this week, potentially hampering its efforts to push legislation on congressional reform, cross-strait relations and media monopolization.
While the two pan-green parties had cooperated closely prior to last month’s elections, the DPP has refused NPP overtures to exchange committee seats in cross-caucus negotiations.
Legislative Yuan rules allow cross-party exchanges of committee seats to occur only under auspices of cross-caucus negotiations, forbidding legislators from exchanging their committee seats with members of other parties absent the blessing of their caucus.
NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said that exchanging committee memberships should be simple and common to allow legislators to make the greatest contribution based on their professional background.
In response to Hsu’s remarks, Ker said there are only a limited number of seats in each committee, and both the Transportation Committee and Internal Administration Committee have been popular among DPP legislators.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
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