Lawmakers yesterday reached agreement that the legislative review of pension reform proposals will begin on April 19 — but only after a cross-caucus negotiation and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus’ “occupation” of the legislative speaker’s podium.
The proposals were scheduled to be referred to the relevant legislative committees for review during yesterday’s floor meeting, but the KMT caucus had up until Wednesday night been calling for a postponement because it had yet to submit its own reform plan.
DPP lawmakers early yesterday morning rushed to occupy the podium to forestall their KMT colleagues from trying to do the same to stop the proposals from being sent to committees.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Many DPP lawmakers were at the door of the legislature’s main chamber by 6am to make sure that they were the first to enter before the start of the 9am meeting, according to a photograph posted on Facebook by DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋).
Lee said the DPP group had arrived early to stop the KMT caucus from occupying the podium.
“I was here at 5:58am and I was the sixth,” DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.
The DPP lawmakers stayed at the podium until the meeting started, without any fuss, on schedule, and a cross-caucus negotiation on whether to refer the proposals to committees began at 10am.
KMT caucus convener Sufin Siluko (廖國棟), said before the start of the cross-caucus negotiation, that his side had “no plan to occupy the speaker’s podium.”
“I wonder why the DPP was so jittery,” he said.
The KMT had a lot to take into account in drawing up its reform plan, “such as the government’s communication [on the issue] and its attitude and how the millions of people and their families might be affected,” he said.
During the hours-long negotiation, KMT lawmakers first insisted that the legislature wait until all versions of pension reform proposals were ready to be referred to the committees so that they could be reviewed together.
However, DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said it was the KMT’s own fault that its proposal was not yet ready.
A consensus was finally reached to hand the proposals over to the committees yesterday, but the official reviews would not begin until April 19.
“We would not block the version proposed by the KMT caucus, which could be considered alongside other versions during the committees’ reviews,” Ker said.
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