A joint session of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration, Finance and Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes committees yesterday completed an initial review of new regulations that would strip the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of its alleged illicit assets, setting the bill on course for a general assembly vote within a month.
“We decided to push everything through as soon as [the KMT legislators] left, for fear that they would have second thoughts,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who had served as session convenor.
“Because this is a new bill, it will still need to go to cross-caucus negotiations, but that clock starts ticking today – so the hope is that the general assembly will vote on the bill by early July,” Chen said.
While the DPP respects KMT opinions, it was “regretful” that many KMT comments were repetitive and not directed at the content of the legislation itself, he said.
KMT lawmakers used procedural stalling throughout the review, with extended “procedural remarks” and comments on bill articles dragging out the session.
The KMT committee members refused to agree to virtually every article of the proposed bill during the consensus-based review process, proving the committees to protest in unison at about 5pm when the majority voted to extend the review session until the review was completed.
With KMT members absent, the committee’s majority quickly passed the disputed articles within half an hour.
The draft bill would establish a special committee under the Executive Yuan to investigate the assets held by the KMT before the lifting of martial law, including the assets of any organization over which the party exercised substantial control.
The party would be required to account for the source of all assets acquired after 1945 within six months of passage of the legislation, with any assets that cannot be accounted for via party dues, political contributions, political subsidies or accrued interest automatically considered “illicit.”
Rewards are to be provided to any whistle-blowers who notify the committee of unreported assets.
Additional reporting by Hsiao Ting-fang
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