The pan-blue camp's constitutional reform proposal would radically alter the government structure in operation for 92 years by abolishing two of the five branches of government, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) announced yesterday.
Citing examples of what he called the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) abuses of the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan, Soong declared the opposition's reform plan would eliminate these two branches.
Soong said the opposition's goal was to replace the nation's semi-presidential form of government with a presidential one.
Giving details of the three-step constitutional reform plan announced by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) on Nov. 15 for the first time, the opposition has reversed its stance from bombarding President Chen Shui-bian's (
Soong said that if the DPP continues using the constitutional issue as one of its campaign strategies, the blue camp would not hesitate to fire back.
"But I must clarify we would not make a new constitution. We are proposing amending the Constitution," he said, trying to make the blue camp's reform plan distinct from Chen's call for a new constitution.
Echoing Lien's insistence that the blue camp would never attempt to "make a new constitution," Soong warned the DPP that the blue camp would now start to create and steer campaign issues rather than laboring to counter the DPP's strategy.
Lien was on a campaign trip to Kuantien township, Tainan County, Chen's birthplace, yesterday. In the 2000 presidential election, more than 90 percent of the township's voters cast their ballots for Chen.
Soong noted the first of the 10 principles in Lien's three-step constitutional reform is "to ensure the sovereignty of the Republic of China."
"This is the bottom line of the blue camp," he said.
Soong said Lien's first principle would address international concerns about the DPP government's suspected moves toward independence.
The blue camp's proposed reform plan would require the president to serve as chief executive of the government's personnel, policy-making and budget sectors.
Under the current system, the president is not answerable to the legislature.
Soong said the blue camp's plan would require the president to report to the legislature on a regular basis, as the premier and other officials do now.
Constitutional amendments would provide a mechanism to prevent the president from being trapped in the legislature by the often lengthy and inefficient question-and-answer sessions, Soong said.
He said although the blue camp is opposed to holding a referendum that would change Taiwan's "status quo," it would not block the legislature's passage of a referendum law.
A debate on the referendum law will be held later this month.
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